Cavill, Frederick

FREDERICK CAVILL (ENG) (10 July 1839 – 9 Feb 1927)

Cavill swum from London Bridge to Northfleet, from Southampton to Portsmouth, Dover Pier to half a mile of Ramsgate Harbour.

Cavill served in the Navy, He held medals for Meritorious services in the Baltic and Indian mutiny.

After the controversy of his 1877 swim, he emigrated to Australia 1878. Fred and his wife Frances had a family of champion swimmers: his six sons Ernest, Percy, Charles, Arthur, Sidney and Richmond known as ‘Dick’. As well as his three daughters; and a grandson Dick Eve who won a gold medal for diving at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris.

The family are credited with originating the Front crawl and Butterfly strokes. In 1970 six members of the Cavill Family were honoured in the International Swimming Hall of Fame.