MARCO INSTITUCIONAL

Given the growing importance of lifesaving techniques, and their close relationship with swimming, it was natural that VASA and its associated clubs chose to incorporate lifesaving exercises into their carnivals. This practice had already been tested in England, with a Swimmers Lifesaving Society formed in 1889 by members of amateur swimming clubs, in order to educate recreational swimmers on lifesaving techniques. This organisation became the Lifesaving Society in 1891, with an Australian branch established in Sydney in 1894.578

Most swimming club committees in this period incorporated an honorary medical officer, to resuscitate swimmers who succumbed to cramp, or simply overexerted themselves.579 However, in order to aid the swimmers themselves in saving lives, various aspects of lifesaving manoeuvres were also incorporated into Melbourne carnivals. Events titled ‘Various Modes of Entering the Water’, ‘Lifesaving Competition’ and ‘Rescuing Drowning Persons’ were common on carnival programs. The South Melbourne Record detailed the judging criteria for the lifesaving competition as the ‘total time taken to bring your man out’, with the quickest given a prize.580 By 1898, the RHS were donating a medallion to be awarded to the winner of the lifesaving competition, in order to create interest and raise awareness.581

578

Best, 50 Years and More, p. 20. A Melbourne branch of the Society was not established until 1904.

579

For example, see ‘Ballarat Swimming Club’, Ballarat Star, 2 December 1893, p. 2, for a list of committee positions.

580

‘Swimming’, South Melbourne Record, 6 April 1895, p. 3.

581

Children were also frequently used to give exhibitions of lifesaving techniques and manoeuvres at swimming carnivals, in order to demonstrate that even the young were capable of saving lives. Marjorie and Trevor Richardson, aged three and six years respectively, gave an exhibition of lifesaving and resuscitation at the 1897 South Melbourne carnival.582 It is worth noting that the father of the two children, Francis Richardson, was heavily involved with VASA, and was one of the delegates present at the formation of the association in 1893. Richardson had always shown a dedicated interest in lifesaving and resuscitation, and his son Trevor would become the Australian breaststroke champion in 1909.583 The Richardson family gave a number of exhibitions at Melbourne carnivals in 1897, and while deeming one of their particular displays as ‘interesting’, the Australasian correspondent was somewhat critical of the applicability of their performance, suggesting that:

The display would have been much more realistic had the supposed drowning person not been quite so tractable and docile. Drowning people as a rule do not calmly float on the surface and wait quietly to be pulled in by the head with their arms outspread. The chief danger in attempting a rescue is the struggling and grasping of the victim and it is one of the aims of lifesaving tuition to teach how their grip may be released and their struggles rendered ineffectual.584

In order to assist their members in rescuing a drowning individual, should it be required, the Melbourne swimming club put some strategies in place shortly after their formation. Club instructors were appointed to teach swimming and diving, and lifesaving classes were instituted. This initiative was already popular in Sydney swimming clubs, with approximately 200 individuals already certified in lifesaving. The Melbourne classes boasted eighteen members shortly after their initiation, and the Middle Park club also established their own lifesaving classes.585 As detailed in the Australasian, these classes were free of charge, and involved a number of drills on land and in the water, ‘demonstrating the best methods of swimming with the rescued person, of releasing oneself from the grasps of a drowning man, and of resuscitation of an apparently drowned person when you have got him ashore’.586

582

‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 30 January 1897, p. 216.

583

McDonald, The First 100, pp. 5-6.

584

‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 6 February 1897, p. 268.

585

‘Unda’, Swimming’, Australasian, 1 December 1894, p. 992.

586

Women were also encouraged to attend the lifesaving classes, with the Melbourne club chairman commenting in 1895 that if a sufficient number of women took up the classes, the club would attempt to appoint some lady swimming instructors.587 The press were supportive of these classes, praising the tuition of the instructor, J. G. Pearson, on numerous occasions. The Australasian correspondent even suggested the introduction of an event where a mock body would be sunk into the baths, and competitors would dive for it, towing it ashore in approved fashion.588 This suggestion was actually adopted at an 1898 state school carnival, and proved successful.589 Swimming on the back was also recommended by press correspondents, for the reason that it was less taxing for weak swimmers to rescue a person using this stroke.590

Another innovation, initially undertaken by the Melbourne club, was a separate lifesaving competition, held at the close of the season, with the advertisement stating ‘Lady friends of members are cordially invited’.591 A report on the 1895 competition commended the honorary instructor, Mr E. W. Pearson, for his proficiency in teaching the members, indicating that these skills were refined throughout the season.592 This lifesaving club was further formalised in the 1895/96 season, with the club meeting each Wednesday under the command of instructor Pearson.593 The knowledge gained from these classes soon proved to be invaluable, with an incident at an 1896 Brighton carnival rendering one of the participants unconscious. He was rescued by members of the various lifesaving classes of the swimming clubs, and upon receiving medical attention made a full recovery.594 By the close of the 1895/96 season, the Melbourne club were providing lifesaving exhibitions in local halls, accompanied by musical entertainment to entice spectators.595 The exhibitions included a lecture on the various methods of resuscitation, using the Brighton incident as a case example of the potential success of learning the art of lifesaving.596

587

‘Swimming’, Sportsman, 22 October 1895, p. 8.

588

‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 2 January 1897, p. 18.

589

‘Overarm’, ‘Swimming’, Weekly Times, 31 December 1898, p. 26.

590

‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 25 December 1897, p. 1403.

591

‘Swimming’, Sportsman, 2 April 1895, p. 3.

592

‘Swimming’, Sportsman, 9 April 1895, p. 3.

593

‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 23 November 1895, p. 987.

594

‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 18 January 1896, p. 115.

595

‘Header’, ‘Swimming’, Leader, 28 March 1896, p. 18.

596

The continual promotion of lifesaving techniques to the public was crucial, as it appeared that there were some public misapprehensions in regard to who was capable of saving a life. A doctor speaking at an 1895 drowning inquest reportedly commented that a middle aged man was incapable of rescuing a drowning person. The Australasian correspondent was quick to refute this fact, pointing out that three of the lifesaving competitions held in Melbourne thus far had been won by J. G. Pearson, who was nearing 50 years of age. A number of other valid examples were given to support the point, which made short shrift of this allegation.597 These lifesaving classes proved integral to dispelling popular myth that not everybody could save a life. However, despite their popularity and apparent effectiveness, it appears that some of the lifesaving classes were abandoned sometime in the 1896/97 season, as after yet another drowning in Port Phillip Bay, the Australasian correspondent commented:

The unfortunate accident to F. W. Styles ... seems to point a moral to those responsible for the collapse of the lifesaving classes. A knowledge of the Sylvester method of rescuscitation on the part of anyone of those near by at the time might have saved the lad’s life, and is a bit of useful knowledge, very easily and quickly learnt.598

The correspondent’s suggestion was that if the association were going to allow these classes to be discontinued, they should arrange for methods of rescuscitation to be taught in conjunction with the St John’s Ambulance lectures that clubs often received. However, his firm view was that rescuscitation should be taught in conjunction with other water-based lifesaving exercises.599 It would appear, however, that their efforts were not widespread enough. At the commencement of the 1896/97 season, after a prolonged period of unnecessary drownings, the Punch editorial suggested that ‘for the need of a more far-reaching system, it would not be a bad idea if the various swimming clubs were to give occasional exhibitions of the art of rescuing drowning people’.600 However, this initiative had been underway for quite some time. To address the number of drownings that were still occurring, it was clear that some greater action needed to be taken to ensure their teachings were reaching a wider audience.

597

‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 14 December 1895, p. 1131.

598

‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 8 January 1898, p. 76.

599

‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 8 January 1898, p. 76.

600

In terms of encouraging this wider development of swimming and lifesaving techniques, the association’s commitment to youth swimming was instrumental in consolidating the teaching of swimming and lifesaving in the Victorian state schools. The Education Act, passed in Victoria in 1872, decreed that education was the responsibility of the public service. It dictated that school was compulsory for children between 6-15 years, and that the prescribed curriculum should be inclusive of reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, needlework and physical drill.601 Other subjects could be taught on the payment of a small fee, and upon the approval of the Department of Education.602 The RHS had long held the view that instruction in swimming should be included as part of the school curriculum, and made compulsory for all schoolchildren.603 Swimming had been officially included in school curricula in London from 1890, after a protracted period of negotiation with the Education Department, due to its hygienic value and role in achieving physical fitness.604 Sydney followed by example, initiating swimming into their curriculum in early 1897.605 However, swimming instruction was not officially incorporated into the Victorian state school curriculum until 1898, and this was initiated largely due to continued requests from VASA that swimming clubs and classes should be instituted in schools, and the example set by the Education Department in Sydney.606

Swimming had proved a popular choice as an educational subject in England due to its applicability to real life situations and its role in maintaining cleanliness and sanitation. Additionally, it was considered a viable alternative to military drill; a subject in the curriculum which promoted physical fitness.607 Military drill was essentially a combination of military skill, gymnastics and callisthenics, and was touted as an ‘effective and organised system of physical exercise’.608 The intention was to develop bodily faculties, achieving health rather than strength, and to instil

601

Janet Walsh and Ian Spalding, Albert Park Primary School 1181, Centenary 1873-1973, School Committee, Albert Park, 1973, p. 5.

602

Sweetman, Long and Smyth, A History of State Education in Victoria, p. 66.

603

Best, 50 Years and More, p. 19.

604

Love, A Social History of Swimming in England, pp. 88-89.

605

‘Unda’, ‘Swimming’, Australasian, 2 January 1897, p. 18.

606

L. J. Blake (ed.), Vision and Realisation: A Centenary History of State Education in Victoria, vol. 1, Education Department of Victoria, Melbourne, 1973, p. 991.

607

Love, A Social History of Swimming in England, p. 89.

608

Ray Crawford, ‘Thwarted Visions: The Physical Culture of Gustav Techow’, Sporting Traditions, vol. 8, no. 2, May 1992, p. 170.

discipline in children.609 This teaching of discipline was intended to impose order on the students, preventing ‘boorishness’ and teaching them deference to authority.610 This use of sport to reform schoolboys has its origins in nineteenth century English public schools, where headmasters such as Thomas Arnold of the Rugby school saw that sport and games had the ability to impose morality and discipline upon its participants.611 Sport and games were also perceived to foster imperialism in public schoolboys. As suggested in J. A. Mangan’s seminal work on the games ethic and imperialism in nineteenth century Britain, learning to obey orders from masters in a sporting context as a schoolboy fostered a natural inclination to obey military orders and act for the good of the English race in war.612

Clearly, it was thought that the introduction of swimming drill would provide the same moral and healthful benefits, with a more practical application. This was a direct reflection of the Muscular Christian ideology, which has been discussed in a previous chapter and which was highly valued in the British educational system. These values were also prominent in nineteenth century Australia, and as early as 1859 newspapers were espousing the benefits of Muscular Christianity in Melbourne, as it reportedly fostered a ‘manly temperament’, a well-balanced mind and was character building.613 D. W. Brown suggests that in colonial Australia, both the independent and state school authorities promoted the moral benefits of physical education and the associated ideology of athleticism.614 Swimming was said to play a major role in this, in that it challenged the tenet of manliness and resulted in a sound mind, both physically and mentally.615 Manliness was an important outcome of physical education, as the development of ‘a sturdy sporting manliness’ was becoming prominent in Australian society,616 undoubtedly due to its importance in establishing Australian national character. Imke Fischer also suggests that the physical training

609

Crawford, ‘Thwarted Visions’, p. 171.

610

Crawford, ‘Thwarted Visions’, p. 175.

611

Richard Holt, Sport and the British: A Modern History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1989, p. 80.

612

J. A. Mangan, The Games Ethic and Imperialism: Aspects of the Diffusion of an Ideal (Second Edition), Frank Cass, London, 1998, p. 48.

613

D. W. Brown, ‘The Legacy of British Victorian Social Thought: Some Prominent Views on Sport, Physical Exercise and Society in Colonial Australia’, in Wray Vamplew (ed.), Sport and Colonialism in 19th Century Australasia, Australian Society for Sports History, Campbelltown, 1986, p. 21.

614

D. W. Brown, ‘Criticisms Against the Value-Claim for Sport and the Physical Ideal in Late Nineteenth Century Australia’, Sporting Traditions, vol. 4, no. 2, May 1988, p. 155.

615

Brown, ‘The Legacy of British Victorian Social Thought’, p. 23.

616

and military drill were taught in the Australian state schools in the late nineteenth century for the purpose of instilling patriotism in the students.617 However, as Brown also states, physical education was also a popular response of reformers to the perceived degeneration of the physical and moral character in Australian cities, which was attributed to flaws in the Victorian state school system.618

VASA’s reasoning for the incorporation of swimming into Victorian state schools was threefold, and similar to that endorsed by the London authorities. As detailed by the leader of the VASA movement, E. L. Zox, swimming was to be incorporated into curriculum for ‘hygienic reasons, as a means of reducing the loss of life from drowning, and as a health-giving and pleasurable exercise’.619 While this was undoubtedly true, it also had the benefit of raising the profile of VASA, and increasing the standard of competitive swimming in Melbourne through teaching young children how to swim. However, prior to the initiation of swimming in the state schools in 1898 and their subsequent involvement, VASA were already making provisions for the younger population at their carnivals and events.