Queen’s birthday honours: record-breaking channel swimmer Cyril Baldock’s lifetime of saving lives

Cyril Baldock has swum the ­English Channel twice, breaking records both times. Now he has been honoured for a lifetime of volunteer lifesaving.

Channel swimmer Cyril Baldock, at his beloved Bondi Beach, has been honoured for services to lifesaving in the Queen’s birthday honours. Picture: Adam Yip

Cyril Baldock has swum the ­English Channel twice, breaking records both times, and at 76 he hasn’t abandoned the idea of having a third go.

In 1985, aged 41, Mr Baldock became the fifth Australian to conquer the cold and treacherous body of water in just 10 hours and 44 minutes.

“At that stage it was the fastest time for anyone over 40 years of age,” Mr Baldock said.

“It’s 33km as the crow flies, but even if you are the strongest swimmer in the world you can’t go straight because of the tidal currents,” he said.

That wasn’t enough for Mr Baldock, a Bondi Beach volunteer lifesaver since his teens. He wanted to become the oldest person to swim the channel. The equation was tricky; as the decades passed, he had to get old enough to pass the record being broken by successive challengers aged in their 60s.

But in August 2014, at the age of 70, Mr Baldock completed the swim from England to France in 12 hours and 45 minutes.

It was a huge personal achievement, but Mr Baldock said: “I more consider myself a team man.” And it is for his service to surf lifesaving” that he has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia.

Mr Baldock has always lived around Bondi, and he joined the Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club in 1958, aged just 15.

He was made a life member in 1977 after serving in numerous roles, including president, and one of the Bondi patrols at the club ­carries his name.

Mr Baldock had a career running businesses, including a sporting goods and sportswear concern with his brother Ted, and stresses that when it comes to surf lifesaving, “all my life I have been a volunteer, which all club members are”. He still sometimes goes down to the club to help out on busy days in summer.

Mr Baldock, who is also an ­accomplished triathlete, describes himself as “still pretty fit”.

He is toying with the idea of ­another attempt to be the oldest person to cross the channel — no one has done it at his age.

“I haven’t given up the thought of possibly going back,” he said.

“I am sort of 50-50. It’s hard to organise; it’s almost like Everest.”