Australian crawl

Alec Wickham: He gave the world the Australian crawl

lee Wickham, the Solomon Islander who ved the world a new way to swim, died in nara on August 10, aged 79. He had taken wo weeks previously at his home on Munda, / Georgia, and was brought to Central Hospi- Honiara, where he died.

■ was the last of the Wickham brothers, famous in their day. ’s older brother, Harry, died in ber, 1962, at his copra plantation [obopeka, Munda, at the age of irry and Alec Wickham were ons of Frank Wickham, a Somer lan who arrived in the Solomons 875 and became a planter and ;r. He had as his headquarters apeka Island, which is close by ana Lagoon. irry’s mother was a woman from district of Bougainville and ’s mother was a woman of da. The youngsters did all their iming in the Roviana Lagoon, e the outside world was still aging with breastroke and dog le, the Wickham youngsters r nothing else but the unique arm action swum by the natives.

Roviana crawl

hen Harry Wickham was six fold his father took him to □1 in Sydney. When Harry swam, warn the Roviana crawl. It was irst time the crawl had been de strated outside its home waters— it was Alec who was the means laking the crawl better known, ec arrived in Sydney about 1897 898 and attended the old Fort t School, and the development le crawl began. It was not until that he returned permanently ic Solomons. Harry had returned 302.

Sydney, Alec Wickham was i free use of the Domain Baths, Arthur Cavill and his younger ier, Dick, intently studied Wick ’s actions. Dick Cavill later stag -1 the swimming world when he me the first swimmer to cover

100 yards in under a minute, and went on to win so many sprints that swimmers were forced to adopt the style.

Another swimmer successfully com bined the old style with the Wickham method, firmly laying the foundation of the modern Australian crawl.

Dick Cavill meanwhile took Alec in hand and saw him win the Aus tralian 100 yards title. Alec became a popular trick diver and swimmer at carnivals throughout Australia.

He would jump into the water feet first from incredible heights—a com mon Roviana feat—and once at Syd ney’s Manly Baths he swam under water over 50 yards against a swim mer on the surface, and beat him. At Sydney’s Rose Bay Baths in 1910, Alec

set a new world record for 50 yards.

Alec could take a standard ship’s life buoy or a four gallon kerosene tin down 25 feet and sit on it.

Alec’s greatest feat was in March, 1918, when at a swimming carnival at the Deep Rock Swimming Club, in Melbourne, he agreed to do a spectacular dive from the cliffs above the pool into the Yarra. The world record dive at that time was held by G. W. Clarke, 165 ft from a bridge in Chicago.

"Prince Wickyama"

Alec was billed as “Prince Wicky yama from the Solomons”—which he objected to—but nevertheless 70,000 people thronged the Yarra Banks to see the dive. Alec’s dive was 205 ft 9 in.—a record which still stands.

He recalled a few years ago that part of his costume was ripped from his body and that for three weeks afterwards he suffered internal pain.

Alec Wickham was buried in Honiara.

The Wickham brothers, Alec (left) and Harry. This was the last photograph of the brothers together, taken in 1962 by former Australian Coastwatcher Reg Evans, not long before Harry died. Evans, the man who was responsible for the wartime rescue of President Kennedy, stayed with the Wickhams on one occasion during the war, when the brothers re mained in the Solomons and assisted the Coastwatchers, acting as scouts. The Wickhams never demanded recognition for their help in developing a new swim ming style, although Harry, before his death, commented that "it would be nice to get a nod our way occasionally".