Solomon ‘prince’ Alick Wickham’s high dive into record books has yet to be beaten
THOUSANDS of people gathered at a charity event on March 23, 1918, to see Alick Wickham make a record-breaking high dive.
Today in History
Don't miss out on the headlines from Today in History. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE huge crowd that had gathered at Deep Rocks Baths on the banks of the Yarra River a century ago today was there to see one man — the daring “Prince Wickyama”. Also known as Alick Wickham, he was not royalty, but had shown himself to be king of the water. A champion swimmer who had learnt his mastery over the waves growing up in the Solomon Islands, he was about to attempt something no one had ever tried, a high dive from 205 feet (62 metres).
It was all part of a charity event raising funds for the war effort. While Wickham was being paid for his dive, a “gift” of £100 from underworld “racing identity” John Wren, he was also risking his life for a patriotic cause.
Climbing to the top of a specially built tower over the swimming hole, many people in the crowd became worried about how dangerous the feat looked.
Some actually yelled “Don’t do it Alick!” and Wickham began to have second thoughts.
He later told a reporter, “I would have gone back to the earth again could I have done so with decency, but the fear of being branded a cocktail held me. Death, I thought, was preferable to that.”
After pacing back and forth on the diving board he finally took the plunge. He later said he remembered little of what it was like either plummeting through the air or hitting the water. He lost consciousness and had to be lifted out of the water. His swimming costume was torn, he was bleeding and in a state of confusion. In the aftermath he said “I could not leave my bed till four days had elapsed.”
He had smashed the previous record of 165ft (50m). While the dive alone would have put Wickham into the annals of swimming history, his achievements went beyond that and put him on a par with swimming greats like Dick Cavill and Annette Kellerman.
Alick Francis Wickham was born on June 1, 1886, at Gizo in New Georgia, the largest island in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. His father Frank was an Englishman who had been shipwrecked in the Bougainville Strait, but stayed to work for the man who rescued him, Captain Alexander Ferguson, a trader who sailed the South Pacific.
Frank became a wealthy trader and landowner, taking an indigenous wife Pinge Naru from the island of Simbo. Wickham grew up around Roviana Lagoon, where he became a powerful swimmer, using the “crawl” swimming stroke that all people from that area used.
In about 1898 Frank sent Alick to boarding school in Sydney, where his older brother Harry was already studying. After school hours Wickham would go to Bronte Baths and amaze other swimmers with what they thought was an unusual swimming stroke.
He befriended brothers Arthur, Syd and Dick Cavill, who all picked up the Roviana-style stroke.
In 1901 when he trounced competitors in a race at Bronte Baths, swimming coach George Farmer was there and is said to have remarked “Look at that kid crawling!”. When the Cavills later showed off the stroke overseas it became known as the Australian crawl, although it had actually come from the Solomon Islands.
Wickham began to make a name for himself as a competitive swimmer, becoming Australia’s first diving champion in 1904, setting a world record for the 50 yards at 24.6 seconds in 1905, and from 1908 to 1912 was NSW state champion. But to pay the bills he was apprenticed to a Macquarie St dentist and became a qualified dental mechanic.
At that time high diving and swimming displays were a popular form of entertainment. Australian Annette Kellerman was having great success on vaudeville and soon managers were clamouring to sign Wickham up for tours. In 1914 he turned professional swimmer, giving public demonstrations and competing in professional races.
When World War I broke out he tried to enlist but was rejected. Instead he did his bit for the war effort by performing at fundraising events for the war effort.
He was finally accepted by the army in 1918 and when he took his record-breaking high dive a century ago he was doing so as a soldier in the Australian Army. But his injuries saw him invalided out of the army.
He went back to the Solomons in the 1920s to work his father’s plantations but returned briefly to Sydney in the ’30s to coach, before settling down permanently in the Solomons. He was still performing swimming and diving feats for locals into his 70s. He died in 1967 in Honiara.
Originally published as Solomon ‘prince’ Alick Wickham’s high dive into record books has yet to be beaten
Gallipoli to D-Day: Aussie’s epic war story
George Dixon went ashore with the original Anzacs at Gallipoli, aged just 15 – and was shot. Three decades later he was fighting again, at history’s other most famous wartime landing.
Love story behind escape tragedy
An Australian murdered in the infamous wartime Great Escape died after swapping places with another man. And his story is still unfolding, 80 years on.