Annie Coupe Speirs (1889–1926), swimmer, and Olympic title holder

Annie Coupe Speirs (1889–1926), swimmer, was borb at 120 Leta Street, Walton, Liverpool, on 14 July 1889, the fourth daughter in the family of at least five sons and four daughters of James Speirs, coppersmith, and his wife, Eliza, née Spencer. Annie came in fifth in the individual freestyle swimming competition at the 1912 Stockholm Olympic Games. On 15 July 1912 Speirs was a member of the Great Britain gold-medal winning team in the ladies 4 × 100 metres freestyle relay, whose other members were Isabella [Bella, Belle] Moore, Jennie Fletcher and Irene Steer. She worked as an upholsterer from before the First World War until her marriage, at Breeze Hill Presbyterian Church, Walton, on 3 June 1922, to Charles Hillman Coombe, ship's cooper, son of Thomas Coombe, watchmaker and jeweller. She died at 107 Rice Lane, Walton, on 26 October 1926 of infective endocarditis.