1917 - 

Clem Walsh was Patrol Captain at Bondi on Black Sunday in 1938 when Australia’s largest mass surf rescue of 250 people occurred. He had been on patrol and was stationed at the water’s edge ready for the start of the weekly surf race. Walsh was one of the first Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club members into the water that hot February day when freak waves wreaked havoc.

The lifesavers on the beach worked quickly. The surf rescue reels, pioneered at Bondi, spun into action, feeding out lines to a ‘beltman’ racing to rescue people in trouble. Walsh was a beltman on one of five reel lines, but was forced to shrug off his belt when members of the public dragged at the lines, tangling them, and pulling him under. He was one of the club’s best swimmers and continued to rescue swimmers unaided.

It was difficult to tell how many people had been rescued during that chaotic 20 minutes. As stricken swimmers were brought to the beach about 60 were unconscious and many needed resuscitation. At one stage there were 20 people strewn across the beach. The Sun newspaper later reported that Walsh saved 24 people with and without the line.

Instead of recognising individual life savers for their efforts, the Surf Life Saving Association of Australia recommended the entire club for a special meritorious award. In 2001, Walsh was honoured by Turramurra High School - where he went to school - for his heroic efforts that day.

Among his other roles at Bondi, Walsh coached the Bondi Amateur Swimming Club. He represented NSW in water polo and was a member of the inter-state life saving team in 1938, winning the Australian Championships in the BSBLSC ‘A’ Surf Team in 1938 and 1939, Rescue and Resuscitation in 1938, and the Inter-Dominion Surf Champion in 1939.

Today, he is honoured and remembered by the BSBLSC with the Walsh Patrol.

Courtesy Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club.