Manly Olympian Frank O’Neill, The First Australian To Break 60 seconds for 110 Yards and who taught Greta Garbo How To Swim, Dies Age 97
One of Australia’s oldest surviving Olympians and Commonwealth Games medallists, Frank O’Neill, has passed away peacefully at home in his beloved suburb of Manly, aged 97.
O’Neill was born in Manly in September of 1926 and became one of the iconic Sydney seaside suburb’s famous sporting identities – a life that took him around the world and back again to the Olympics and the French Riviera.
OLYMIC SWIM TEAM CAPTAIN: Frank O’Neill in his hey day.Photo courtesy Australian Olympic Committee.
A champion all-round swimmer, who was the first Australian to crack the minute for 110 yards freestyle; a champion surf lifesaver and expert water polo player, the swim coach to film stars who became a horse whisperer.
While living on the French Riviera, O’Neill taught actresses Greta Garbo and Ginger Rogers how to swim the Aussie crawl and an aging author Somerset Maugham how to dive, as he married and re-married into and mixed with royalty and the rich and famous.
A young lad who grew up under the pines at Manly, taught to swim by his father Tom (a World War 1 AIF gunner) at the famous Manly Baths.
Tom was the manager at the Baths for over 30 years through an era when Manly was home to the likes of 1924 Olympic champions, swimming’s wunderkind Andrew “Boy” Charlton and diving’s Richmond “Dick” Eve.
Frank lived upstairs from the Baths, and it became his backyard; and it was also the home of the Manly Swimming Club where he was eventually coached by local identity George Lawson who he had built up a great rapport with.
And if young Frank wasn’t at the pool swimming or playing water polo, he could be found learning to shoot the waves at nearby surf beaches at Manly and North Steyne, the club he represented in State and National lifesaving competitions, with great success in the early 1940s.
A member of the North Steyne surf teams that won the NSW State Senior and Junior Surf teams titles in 1943-44 (with the second World War suspending the Australian Championships) – the senior with noted Manly swimmers Warren Boyd, Jamie Jenkins and the prolific surf champion John Ashley, the juniors with Boyd, Ashley and Ken McMinn.
O’Neill was also in the Manly Swimming Club water polo team that won the NSW title in 1946 -with Ashley, McMinn and Manly-Warringah’s first rugby league football captain and champion surfer and wrestler “Mr. Chesty Bond” Max Whitehead.
In January 1948 he set a NSW record for 55 yards freestyle of 27.0 seconds and in December 1949 he was the first Australian to swim under one minute for the 110 yards freestyle, in a time of 59.9.
BOY O BOY: Frank O’Neill as a five-year-old boy with famous Olympic champion Andrew “Boy” Charlton pictured at Manly Baths in 1932. Photo Courtesy Frank O’Neill Family Collection.
In 1953 Frank set his only world record when he won the first Australian 440 yards individual medley championship in 5:43.00.
In a stellar career, O’Neill would go on to represent Australia, named swim team captain for the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, after paying his own way to the 1948 Games in London – with the hope that Australia would receive a late relay entry.
Although London wasn’t to be, O’Neill raced internationally whilst overseas but the boy from Manly would only have to wait two more years to represent his country – making his debut at the 1950 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, winning two silver medals – becoming Australia’s fastest freestyler.
The first of his silvers came in the 110 yards freestyle – beaten in an exciting battle with Canadian Peter Salmon who set a new Games record time of 1:00.04 with the fast-finishing O’Neill a touch behind in 1:00.06.
Before combining with Olympian Garrick Agnew, Barrie Kellaway and James Beard to finish second behind New Zealand in the 4×220 yards freestyle relay in a race which did not start until just before midnight when most of the 5000 strong crowd had gone home.
In the 3×110 yards Medley Relay, O ‘Neill combined with Frank Stevens and Ronald Sharp to finish fourth before showing his versatility to play a leading role in Australia’s three Test win over hosts New Zealand in an exhibition Water Polo Series – Australia winning 11:4; 13-2 and 5-2.
In the lead up to the Games, O’Neill had won the third of his four Australian 110 yards Championships, becoming the first man to win a National title in under 60 seconds – clocking a time of 59.60.
All-in-all Frank O’Neill won 12 National swimming titles between 1946 and 1953 – the blue ribband 110 yards titles in 1946-47-50 and 51; the 220 yards freestyle in 1950-51 and 52; the 330 yards individual medley in 1950-51 and 52 that became the 440 yards medley in 1953 and the 440 yards State Medley relay with Olympic champion Jon Henricks, Australian swimming and surf champion Bob Barry and Bill Scott.
MEDALS ON DISP[LAY. Frank O’Neill’s medals are on display at the Andrew “Boy” Charlton Aquatic Centre, Manly. Photo Courtesy Manly Swimming Club.
At the 1952 Olympics, O’Neill was appointed captain of the swim team by Australian Section Manager, Australian Swimming and Olympic president, Syd Grange, saying: “Frank O’Neill has had considerable experience of swimming overseas since 1948 and is the senior member of the swimming team.”
O’Neill contested the 110 yards freestyle, 110 yards backstroke and the 4×220 yards freestyle relay in Helsinki but unfortunately didn’t make finals; a team that would prepare for the Games in Townsville – which would become the home away from home for Aussie swim teams of the 50s and 60s.
The team was under local coach Coach Anne Timmermans who was a firm taskmaster, setting a rigid training regime, with each member of the team having to swim a minimum of four miles per day, spend four hours per day in the water and be engaged in calisthenics for half an hour each morning.
The secrets of their success must have come from the activities barred from the camp until after the Olympics if these team diary notes are to go by.
They included: “No late nights; no dancing; no surfing; no lengthy sunbaking; no smoking and no drinking hard liquor. Team members must have ten hours sleep a night, drinking plenty of milk and eating a lot of steaks were encouraged with the promise of seeing a film about once every ten days.”
Certainly, having to earn your rewards in those days (although popcorn may have also been on the banned list).
Frank would later open the Frank O’Neill Olympic Swimming School at Pymble, on Sydney’s North Shore.
His personal life was interesting, intriguing and colourful to say the least.
PREMIERS: Manly Water Polo Club Premiers 1946. Pictured Back Row (L-R) Le0 Crum, Frank O’Neill, Max Whitehead, Ken McMinn,Bob McCouat. Front Row (L-R) John Ashley, Ian McKessar, Don Page. Photo Courtesy Manly Swimming Club archives.
In 1950, O’Neill met and married, Patricia Cavendish, a noted author and a wealthy heiress and daughter of an Irish Countess with ties to the Lindemann Wines family, divorcing in 1954 but re-marrying Patricia in 1969. (Patricia passing away in 2019, aged 93).
For a time, Frank also ran a teaching school at his mother in-law’s pool at “Florentina” a Villa at Cap Ferrat on the French Riviera.
There, he taught celebrities such as Greta Garbo, Somerset Maugham, Ginger Rogers and others.
“When I started teaching Greta she could do a painfully slow breaststroke,” Frank later recalled.
“She was keen to learn, but never got beyond a dozen yards slow overarm. I could never persuade her to put her face into the water.
“She trained in almost complete silence, and she was so shy that she never sunbaked and always put on a robe over her one-piece black costume as soon as she left the water.
“In the sun, too, she always wore a large floppy hat; the sort that granny used to call a gardening hat.
GRETA GARBO: Greta Garbo was one of Frank O’Neill’s pupils. Photograph by Edward Steichen © 2021 The Estate of Edward Steichen / ARS, courtesy the George Eastman Museum.
“Somerset Maugham, on the other hand, was a friendly, happy old fellow, who could swim sidestroke but could never master overarm because he couldn’t learn the proper breathing technique.
“But although he was getting on in years, he was mad keen to learn to dive and so adventurous that I used to worry that he would hurt himself. He would try anything once-even if it killed him.”
O’Neill moved with his well-to-do family connections, living in South Africa for many years, where they ran a business breeding thoroughbreds for the racetrack with connections to Sydney’s No 1 horse trainer TJ Smith.
In the year 2000, aged 73, O’Neill returned to Australia to participate in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Torch Relay; running his leg in Goulburn, before settling again in Manly, often popping into the now Andrew “Boy” Charlton Aquatic Centre, which still hosts the same Manly Swimming Club Frank represented when was selected for the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.
All of O’Neill’s medals are on display at Manly’s Andrew “Boy” Charlton Aquatic Centre.
Frank O’Neill is survived by his devoted partner Jan.
A Funeral Service for the late Frank O’Neill will be held at 2pm Monday, July 22 at The Chapel, Frenchs Forest Cemetery, with the Australian Olympic Committee offering the family the Olympic Flag.
Frank O’Neill (Born September 30, 1926-Died July 10, 1924)
Wonderfully tribute!
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Wonderful Tribute to a fascinating character and legend amongst swimmers from a bygone era
Thanks Ian,
Wonderful & comprehensive tribute to a Manly Water Sports Icon.