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Fred Wimbridge

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Australian rules footballer

Australian rules footballer
Fred Wimbridge
Personal information
Full name Fredrick John Wimbridge
Date of birth (1893-03-09)9 March 1893
Place of birth Broomehill, Western Australia
Date of death 4 December 1977(1977-12-04) (aged 84)
Place of death Perth, Western Australia
Height 188 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Weight 82 kg (181 lb)
Position(s) Utility
Playing career
Years Club Games (Goals)
1911–16, 1919, 1928–29 Perth 105
1920–1924 West Perth 47 (56)
1925 South Melbourne 8 (12)
Playing statistics correct to the end of 1929.
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Fredrick John "Fred" Wimbridge (9 March 1893 – 4 December 1977) was an Australian rules footballer who played in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and with South Melbourne in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

Family

The son of David Arthur Wimbridge (1860–1926), and Eliza Wimbridge (1863-1934), née Gorman, Fredrick John Wimbridge was born at Broomehill, Western Australia on 9 March 1893.

He married Robina Vera Millikan (1898–1959) on 10 August 1920.

Football

Wimbridge started his career at Perth and was their leading goal-kicker in 1915 when he kicked 36 goals.

He then spent two seasons away from the League on war service but returned to Perth in 1919.

The following year he joined West Perth and topped their goal-kicking in 1921 with 30 goals. Despite playing as a forward that season, he made two appearances for Western Australia at the Perth Carnival as a fullback. He represented Western Australia on one further occasion.

He was already 32 when he made his way to South Melbourne, with whom he would play eight games in the 1925 VFL season. His best performance was a five-goal haul in a win over Footscray at Lake Oval.

After two years playing elsewhere in Victoria, Wimbridge returned to his original club Perth. He participated in the 1928 and 1929 seasons and then retired, having played 105 games for Perth.

Military service

He enlisted in the First AIF in October 1916, served overseas, and returned to Australia in June 1919.

Bravery award

Wimbridge was awarded a Bronze Medal by the Royal Humane Society of Australasia in 1925, for conspicuous bravery when he risked his life in assisting the eventual rescue of four women from drowning.

The four women, none of whom could swim, had been swept out to sea by the strong undertow of a rip at a beach in Mandurah, south of Perth, on Sunday, 23 March 1924. Three men were involved in the rescue: Wimbridge, Arthur Donald Lakeman (1896-1924), and Redvers Henry Buller Huxtable (1899-1985). Lakeman drowned in the process of the rescue; one of the four women rescued was his wife, another was his sister.

Death

He died at Perth, Western Australia on 4 December 1977.

See also

Notes

  1. Holmesby & Main, (2007).
  2. Obituary: The Late Mr. David Arthur Wimbridge, The (Perth) Daily News, (Friday, 6 August 1926), p. 3.
  3. Deaths: Wimbridge, The West Australian, (Saturday, 20 January 1934), p.1.
  4. ^ AustralianFootball.com.
  5. ^ AFL Tables.
  6. Wimbridge Retires, The Albany Advertiser, (Tuesday, 29 April 1930), p. 3.
  7. Nominal Roll.
  8. Service Record.
  9. Wimbridge: Presentation for Bravery, The (Perth) Daily News, (Friday, 21 1925), p. 8.
  10. Conspicuous Bravery: Royal Humane Society Awards, The West Australian, (Monday, 24 August 1925), p. 8.
  11. Lakeman Drowning Fatality, The South Western Advertiser, (Friday, May 1924), p. 3.
  12. A Mandurah Tragedy: Gallant Rescue from Drowning: Hero Loses his Life, The (Perth) Daily News, (Monday, 24 March 1924), p 8.
  13. The Mandurah Fatality, The West Australian, (Wednesday, 26 March 1924), p. 8.

References

External links

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