1891 - 1956

Australian swimming champion Frank Beaurepaire’s courageous rescue of a shark attack victim at Coogee on 4 February 1922 won him Surf Life Saving’s second-ever Meritorious Award and life membership of the North Bondi SLSC.

The rescue captured the public’s imagination. Beaurepaire swam out to help with fellow North Bondi member Jack Chalmers, who had a rescue line. Beaurepaire dived in without equipment.

His swimming skills had been nurtured in Melbourne. By 1906, aged 14, Beaurepaire won his first Victorian swimming title. In 1908 he won three titles at the national championships in Perth before heading to the London Olympics and European championships. Two years later, he won the Helms Athletic Foundation of America trophy for athlete of the year.

On his return to Australia in 1911, Beaurepaire became a professional swimming instructor, which excluded him from amateur events. After World War I, he staged a comeback, competing at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics (his sister, Lily, also represented Australia in swimming and diving) and the 1924 Paris Olympics.

In 1922, his skills were put to a deadly test when 19-year-old Coughlan, of Randwick, was attacked by a shark at Coogee about 3pm. Coughlan, also a member of the North Bondi Surf Life Club, was able to shout warnings to other swimmers to leave the water.

Back on the beach, Chalmers plunged into the water first with a lifeline around his waist. He quickly reached Coughlan and helped beat off the shark. Beaurepaire, who was on lifeguard duty, raced into the shark-infested water, reaching Coughlan soon after Chalmers. Despite the danger, the pair dragged him to shore with bystanders’ help. Coughlan died of his injuries soon after. Newspapers reported on Coughlan’s brave fight:
“With one snap of its jaws the brute tore off Coughlan’s arm, but the plucky boy… tried to beat off his savage assailant.”

Beaurepaire was awarded the Royal Humane and Shipwreck Society of NSW Gold medal and a ₤550 reward. He used the money to start the Beaurepaires tyres business, which had assets worth more than ₤8 million at his death.

Beaurepaire would later go on to be Melbourne lord mayor.   

Images courtesy North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club.