HEALY, Cecil Patrick
| Service Number: | 2 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 15 September 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Second Lieutenant |
| Last Unit: | 19th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 28 November 1881 |
| Home Town: | Sydney, City of Sydney, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Sydney Grammar School and Mr Rillings School, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation: | Commercial traveller and Olympian |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 29 August 1918, aged 36 years |
| Cemetery: |
Assevillers New British Cemetery Plot II, Row F, Grave No. 6 |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Double Bay War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 15 Sep 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Company Quartermaster Sergeant, 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| 27 Nov 1915: | Involvement 2, HQ Infantry Base Depot Army Service Corps, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '22' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Suffolk embarkation_ship_number: A23 public_note: Name is listed as Cecil Healy on original record | |
| 27 Nov 1915: | Embarked 2, HQ Infantry Base Depot Army Service Corps, HMAT Suffolk, Sydney | |
| 29 Aug 1918: | Involvement Second Lieutenant, 2, 19th Infantry Battalion, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 2 awm_unit: 19 Battalion awm_rank: Second Lieutenant awm_died_date: 1918-08-29 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Evan Evans
From The Western Front Association
Cecil Patrick Healy swam for the Australasian team in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, winning gold and silver medals. He is the only Australian gold medallist to have lost his life in the war.
The son of a barrister, Healy was born in Darlinghurst, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, but moved with his family to the rural town of Bowral where he received his primary schooling. He moved to Sydney in 1896, joining the East Sydney Swimming Club and was also a member of the North Steyne Surf Lifesaving Club.
He attended St Aloysius in Sydney in 1896 and is remembered there in the Roll of Honour and via the Cecil Healy plate which is given out to the winner of the inter-house swimming competition.
He was a proponent of the new crawl stroke and the technique of side breathing, winning his first Australian title in 1905. In 1906, he was selected for the Australian team in the Intercalated games, winning a bronze medal in the 100 metres freestyle. By 1908, he had returned to Australia from Europe but was unable to attend the 1908 Olympics in London, due to a lack of funds.
Healy also participated in the old Manly Surf Club and then at North Steyne Surf Bathers and Lifesaving Club. Both Healy and Manly council lifeguard, Jack Reynolds, made a very difficult rescue in the summer of 1911 of 2 men who had been swept out off Manly in a big sea. His bravery was praised as the most meritorious rescue and resuscitation during that swimming season in letters written by eyewitnesses to The Telegraph newspaper. Cecil Healy was awarded the Silver Medal for Bravery and Certificate of Merit from the Royal Shipwreck Relief and Humane Society of NSW.
In the 1912 Olympics, Healy won gold in the 4 x 400 metres freestyle and silver in the 100 metres freestyle, where he was beaten by the American swimmer Duke Kahanamoku, after what has been described as one of the greatest acts of sportsmanship in Olympic History.
When the US team, including race favourite Duke Kahanamoku, was disqualified from the event after failing to turn up for the semi-finals because of confusion about the race start time, Healy refused to swim without Duke.
Healy successfully protested until the Olympic Committee relented and the American swimmer and his countrymen were permitted to compete. Kahanamoku went on to win the gold medal, later declaring that Healy was “the true Olympic champion”.
In September 1915, Healy decided to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force and served as a quartermaster sergeant in Egypt and France. After attending officer training, he became a second lieutenant in June 1918 in the 19th Sportsman’s Battalion. On 29 August 1918, just 74 days before the end of the war, he was killed in a field near Peronne whilst leading his platoon, clearing out German machine gun posts when he was shot in the neck and chest.
On hearing of his death, Major Syd Middleton, a former Wallaby rugby union captain who had been Healy's commander, wrote:
"By Healy's death the world loses one of its greatest champions, one of its best men.
"Today, in the four years I have been at the front, I wept for the first time."
Cecil Healy is buried in Assevillers New British Cemetery.
You can read more about Cecil Healy here>>> bit.ly/WFA-Cecil-patrick-healy
Biography contributed by Evan Evans
From Danielle Roubroeks,Australia and New Zealand in WWI
2nd Lt Cecil Patrick Healy (28 Nov 1881 – 29 Aug 1918) was an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1900s and 1910s, who won silver in the 100 m freestyle at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. He also won gold in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. He was killed in the First World War at the Sommeduring an attack on a German trench. Healy was the second swimmer behind Frederick Lane to represent Australia in Swimming and has been allocated the number "2" by Swimming Australia on a list of all Australians who have represented Australia at an Open International Level.
Now resting in Assevillers New British Cemetery, France.
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