In hot water

The Sydney Morning Herald of 25 December 1901 reported on a “plucky rescue” at Manly: “Mr Grantley B. Sheridan, of Manly, on Sunday last was with some companions near the outlet of Curl Curl Lagoon, when he was summoned to assist a bather who had been carried out by the current, and was in danger of drowning. Mr Sheridan swam out, caught his man, then sinking for the last time, and by manful battling managed to bring him to a sandbank, where onlookers had formed a living chain, and both were hauled ashore in safety. It was half an hour before the rescued man was brought to his senses. Mr. Sheridan made a similar rescue last year at Manly, with a similarly successful result.”[1]

Mr Sheridan, 29, was awarded a silver medal and Certificate of Merit by the Shipwreck Relief and Humane Society of NSW, and a Bronze Medal by the Royal Humane Society of Australasia.[2]
The rescued man was Philip Bushell, aged 22. Philip Bushell (1879-1954) was the nephew of Arthur Brooke, who founded Brooke Bond tea. Philip, too, went into the tea business, with his brother Alfred, and they had just established the tea-shop Bushell and Co in George Street, Sydney. Later, they formed Bushell’s Ltd in February 1912, with Philip as Managing Director and Chairman, and by the 1920s the firm was well-known all over Australia, particularly for its eye-catching promotional stunts. Philip Bushell married on 12 February 1916, and had two daughters. He died in 1954.[3]
Grantley Sheridan, without whom we may never have had Bushell’s tea, moved inter-state, and latterly lived at Toorak, Victoria, where he was a bank inspector. He died there in 1936, aged 64.[4]

The attached photo shows a prominent Bushell's advertisement from 1937 at Queenscliff bridge overlooking the spot where the rescue took place.

[1] SMH 25 December 1901, p6.
[2] Champion, Bathing Drowning and Life-Saving in Manly Warringah and Pittwater to 1915 p52.
[3] ADB vol 7 p498.
[4] Victoria Death Index 1921-1985.

Manly versus Australia

In the early history of cricket at Manly, perhaps the most unusual match was the one-dayer played on 27 February 1867 between Manly and “The Australians”. At that time, the landlord of the Pier Hotel was Charlie Lawrence. He had toured Australia with the England cricket team in 1861-62, and liked Australia so much that he stayed. Together with George Smith, a former Mayor of Sydney, Lawrence was associated with the celebrated Aboriginal cricketers, who were the first team from Australia to tour in England. Lawrence put up the Aboriginal team on his land at Manly, and coached them in the finer points of the game. As a fund-raiser for the forthcoming tour of England, a match was arranged between the men of Manly and the Australian Club, some of the best players in the country at that time. Representing Manly were: Smithers, Cozens, Grey, Wills, Mullagh, Lawrence, G Sly, H Sly, Hart, Johnson and Gould. Cozens and Mullagh were members of the Aboriginal side.
A report of the match from the Sydney Morning Herald (28 February 1867) stated: “The Beachites went first to the wicket, with Smithers and Cozens against the bowling of Sheridan and Howell. The first wicket (that of Smithers) fell for 13, Cozens and Grey for 9 more. Wills made a stand, and kept his wicket intact till the finish of the innings, but with the exception of Lawrence, who, however, was caught when he had scored 8, he obtained little support from his comrades. He was the only one who made double figures. All were out for 53.”
In reply, the Australians made 107, Blanchard and Sheridan being top scorers; Wills took three wickets. There was no time for a second innings. The pitch came in for criticism: “its roughness militated against good bowling.” However the report noted that a good cricket ground would be a very important addition to “our principal marine resort.”

Scouting in Manly

The Boy Scout movement in Sydney began around 1908. Newsreels showing at the cinemas publicized the new movement, and by 1909 there were dozens of troops springing up all over Sydney. Charles Swancott, in his short history of Manly, stated that Scouting began in Manly in 1916 – but was he correct? He did not give his source for this date, but it is likely to have been from the recollection of an older resident of Manly, rather than from a documentary source. It was stated in the Manly Daily (25 August 1966) that the 1st Manly Boy Scouts had been formed on 9 February 1917 under the leadership of Mr Harry Smith; and they celebrated their golden jubilee in 1967.
But in fact it appears that there was a troop at Manly in 1910, and most probably in 1909. The 1910 sighting is from a roll of subscribers to a disaster relief fund, printed in the Sydney Morning Herald on 11 February 1910, which lists ‘Manly Boy Scouts’ as one of the donors. Of course, it is possible that this early group was not fully affiliated, but it’s no exaggeration to say that there have been Scouts in Manly for a hundred years. Newspaper reports of the day state that some churches in Sydney were not in favour of the Scouting movement, as attendance at Sunday School was falling off as a result of Scout weekend camps.

Pictured are boys from the Balgowlah Boy Scouts, mid-1950s.

Bush-fire in Sydney Road

In March 1915, Sydney suffered dozens of outbreaks of bush-fire, made worse by strong winds. On 8-10 March 1915, several fires broke out in Manly. “Three shops in Sydney Road, on the hill overlooking the harbour, were burned to the ground,” reported the Sydney Morning Herald on 9 March, “and only the walls remained standing.” The severe nor’wester helped to fan the flames, and the firemen, who came from Manly Fire Station, then located in its original premises in Sydney Road near the Corso, were powerless to deal with the outbreak. The tram-way was cut for a while, and all the telephone wires were severely damaged. Mr C E Guest’s grocer’s shop on Sydney Road near William Street was one of those destroyed, and damage exceeded £5000, a large sum for those days. The cause of the outbreak was not discovered. A second fire broke out elsewhere in Balgowlah, but it was contained by the firemen with the assistance of Senior-Constable Holtsbaum and Constable Hand.
Perhaps it was no coincidence that when a new Fire Station for Manly was built after the First World War, it was sited very near to the spot where Guest’s grocer’s shop had stood in Sydney Road.