James Renforth was born in 1842 in Manors, Newcastle and raised in Gateshead. His first job was as a blacksmith's striker, wielding a heavy hammer which developed his strength, but by 1866 he was working as a boatman on the demolition of the old Tyne Bridge which had replaced the medieval bridge, destroyed by a flood in 1771, and was about to be replaced in turn by the current Swing Bridge.
This was a time when rowing was the most popular spectator (and gambling) sport on Tyneside and Renforth decided to use his strength and skills in a boat to take up racing. He was a clearly a natural talent as well as a dedicated racer and was so good that he soon struggled to find opponents for one to one races and had to start entering regattas (for reduced prize money). This raised his profile outside the area and he went on to win the world championship by beating Henry Kelley on the Putney to Mortlake course on the Thames (the route of the University Boat Race) in 1868.
Although he started out as a sculler (a single rower using two oars) he moved into team rowing and was competing in Canada in 1871 in a crew of 4 when he died, probably of a heart attack, possibly related to epilepsy, although rumours of poisoning persisted.
This cache takes you to three monuments to him that are still standing in Gateshead:
Location 1 - N54° 58.032 W001° 36.251:
Inside the church which is now St Mary's Heritage Centre go the west wall (just under the window) to find the plaque to Renforth. Check the opening hours at the heritage centre's website.
Make a note of the number of letters in the final word that he ever said - that's F.
Location 2 - N54° 57.326 W001° 35.693:
In Gateshead East Cemetery find the marker on his grave. This marker replaced the sculpture which you'll see at the next location.
The stone says "This stone marks the grave of James Renforth of..." The number of letters in the next word gives you D.
Immediately to the right is the grave of the Barclays. Look at John Barclay's date of death to get 19A7.
Location 3 - N54° 57.000 W001° 36.000:
This sculpture showing Renforth's dramatic collapse in Canada (into the arms of the magnificently bearded Henry Kelley who he'd beaten to that sculling world championship three years earlier) used to stand on his grave but has been moved to this more public location.
Count the number of stars around the bottom of the plinth and subtract the number of lions to get E (check all of the sides).
Look at the inscription - B is the first digit of his age when he died.
There's a single word on the back of the sculpture. Count the number of letters and subtract four to get C.
Final Location:
Use the numbers that you've gathered above to calculate the final location. The cache is hidden at:
N54° 57.ABC
W001° 35.DEF
Renforth wasn't forgotten in Canada either - there's village named after him in New Brunswick on the shores of the river where he died. There's a cache there too! Check out GC1ZNZJ: Renforth, New Brunswick next time you're passing through the Canadian maritime provinces.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.
Congratulations to n901cag for the first-to-find.