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Gary Arthur CHAPMAN (1938-1978)

Australian champion swimmer and fisherman

 Gary Arthur Chapman was born on 12 March 1938 at Brighton-Le-Sands, Sydney.  He was the son of Arthur James Kennard Chapman and his wife, Gladys Alma, nee Deller, who were married at Rockdale in 1936   (RN6776).  They also had three other children – Wendy, Kay and Owen. The family later lived in Kogarah. For many years Arthur had sports stores in Rockdale and Hurstville, operated tennis courts in the St. George area and wrote a sports column for the local paper The St. George Call.

 

When enrolled in swimming lessons at Ramsgate Baths, Gary was a reluctant pupil and only took part after he was told he couldn’t go fishing until he could swim. By the age of 7 he was showing promise and being coached by Steve Duff. He was a pupil at Kogarah Boys’ Intermediate High School and excelled at most sports but, by 14, swimming became his focus. He dominated school boy events and, at the Australian Championships, in February 1953 he won the Australian 440 yard freestyle title in 4 minutes 42.6 seconds cutting 2.9 seconds off the Australian record. Leaving school and coached by Frank Guthrie at the Enfield pool, at the Australian championships in 1954, he won and broke the records for the 440 and 880 yards freestyle events. In slicing 12.8 seconds off the 880 yard record, he qualified for the 1954 Empire (later Commonwealth) Games held in Vancouver.

 

At age16 he was 6 ft 2 ins (188 cm) tall and weighed 13st 7 lbs (88 kg) with large hands that helped him swim 55 yards with thirty-seven strokes six fewer than his rivals. There was much publicity comparing his diet with that of Murray Rose who was the same age and also destined to become one of Australia’s great swimmers.  Rose was a vegetarian whose diet also included seaweed. Chapman ate steak at three meals a day and his meals were double the normal size.

 

At the Games in Vancouver, Canada, in August, 1954, Chapman  won gold medals for the 440 and 4 x 220 yards free style events. He also won a bronze medal in the 1650-yard freestyle. In his era, the 220 and 880-yard freestyle were not contested as individual events. In 1955, he took a break from swimming and kept fit by playing tennis.

 

As Murray Rose began to dominate distance freestyle swimming, Chapman switched to competing in the 110  and 220-yard events to improve his chances of selection for the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. Prior to the Games, he defeated Jon Henricks twice in the 220-yard freestyle and set a new world record. As the 200-metre freestyle was not an Olympic event, he was forced to concentrate on the 100 metre freestyle in which he won a bronze medal behind Henricks and another Australian, John Devitt. He swam in the qualifying heats for the 4x200 metre freestyle relay but was replaced by Kevin O’Halloran in the final where the Australians won the gold medal. Heat swimmers were not entitled to gold medals.

 In Brisbane, on 3 May 1958, Chapman with John Devitt, Jon Konrads and Geoffrey Shipton set a world record of 3 minutes 46.3 seconds for the 4x100 metres freestyle. In July, at the Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales, he won gold medals in the 4x200 yards, the 4x110 yards medley relays and a silver in the 110 yards freestyle.  He retired after the Games.

 He resumed his education at St George Technical College  and worked in his father’s Rockdale store.  He was now able to concentrate on his great love – fishing.  He was a member of the St George and Sutherland Shire Anglers’ Club and the Port Hacking Game Fishing Club.  He held many records, was New South Wales rock-fishing champion in 1964 and was the first man to be awarded the ‘Master Angler’ title from the Australian National Sportfishing Association for the capture of 10 fish of different species exceeding a points value of 100.

 On 10 February 1962, at St Paul’s Anglican Church, Kogarah, Gary Chapman married Audrey (Adri) Bosma. Her father, Marines Bosma had arrived in Australia five years previously with his wife and five children including Audrey. Gary and Audrey lived in Gymea.

 On 23 September 1978, Chapman and his long-time angling friend Ron Nelson set out in Chapman’s power boat, a 5.2 metre Quintrex, to fish at the Peak a favourite spot off Maroubra Beach.  The upturned boat was found the next day but their bodies were never recovered.  Nelson was an experienced small boatman and skindiver and Chapman one of the best swimmers in Australia and one of its top spearfisherman. The community was shocked by the news which highlighted the risks in blue water fishing. The coroner returned a finding of accidental drowning.

 Chapman was survived by his wife, Audrey, a son and a daughter.  His estate was sworn for probate at $75,378.

 Arthur Chapman died on 7 January, 1987.  He was cremated at Woronora Cemetery.

 Gladys Chapman died at Frank Vickery Village, Sylvania on 9 July, 1999.  She was cremated at Woronora Cemetery.

 

Colleen Passfield 2019

 

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