Fred_Wimbridge
Fred Wimbridge
Australian rules footballer
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).[1]
Fred Wimbridge | |||
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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 career1 | |||
Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
1911–16, 1919, 1928–29 | Perth | 105 | |
1920–1924 | West Perth | 47 (56) | |
1925 | South Melbourne | 8 (12) | |
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1929. | |||
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com |
The son of David Arthur Wimbridge (1860–1926),[2] and Eliza Wimbridge (1863-1934), née Gorman,[3] Fredrick John Wimbridge was born at Broomehill, Western Australia on 9 March 1893.
He married Robina Vera Millikan (1898–1959) on 10 August 1920.
Wimbridge started his career at Perth and was their leading goal-kicker in 1915 when he kicked 36 goals.[4]
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.[4] Despite playing as a forward that season, he made two appearances for Western Australia at the Perth Carnival as a fullback.[4] He represented Western Australia on one further occasion.[4]
He was already 32 when he made his way to South Melbourne, with whom he would play eight games in the 1925 VFL season.[5] His best performance was a five-goal haul in a win over Footscray at Lake Oval.[5]
After two years playing elsewhere in Victoria, Wimbridge returned to his original club Perth.[4] He participated in the 1928 and 1929 seasons and then retired, having played 105 games for Perth.[4][6]
He enlisted in the First AIF in October 1916, served overseas, and returned to Australia in June 1919.[7][8]
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.[9]
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).[10] Lakeman drowned in the process of the rescue; one of the four women rescued was his wife, another was his sister.[11][12][13]
He died at Perth, Western Australia on 4 December 1977.
- Holmesby & Main, (2007).
- AustralianFootball.com.
- AFL Tables.
- Nominal Roll.
- Service Record.
- Holmesby, Russell; Main, Jim (2007). The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers. BAS Publishing. ISBN 978-1-920910-78-5.
- World War One Nominal Roll: Private Frederick Wimbridge (3173), collection of the Australian War Memorial.
- World War One Service Record: Private Frederick Wimbridge (3173), National Archives of Australia.
- Fred Wimbridge's playing statistics from AFL Tables
- Frederick Wimbridge, at WAFL FootyFacts.
- Fred Wimbridge at AustralianFootball.com