Dick Eve

Dick Eve was born to a swimming family. His grandfather Frederick Cavill, known as Professor of Swimming in Australia, was a professional swimmer in England, whose attempt to cross the English Channel fell just three miles short in 1876. After emigrating to Australia, Frederick Cavill became a renowned swimming instructor and owner of several baths in Sydney area. Eve’s uncles Ernest, Charles, Percy, Arthur, Sydney and Richmond all became very successful amateur and professional swimmers, who dominated the swimming scene at the end of 19th and start of 20th century. Later they all became renowned swimming instructors and stunt swimmers. Arthur is credited as the originator of Australian crawl stroke, which now predominates in freestyle swimming races, Sydney was the originator of butterfly stroke and Richmond was the first to use the crawl in competition. All three daughters of Frederick Cavill were also very good swimmers and worked as swimming instructors, including Eve’s mother Fredda. The Cavill family was jointly inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1970.

Dick Eve was taught to swim and dive at an early age by his mother and from 1915 he was with the Manly Amateur Swimming Club. Although Eve won the Australian springboard (or fancy diving as it was then called) championships every time from 1921-24, he was not considered a medal contender at the 1924 Olympics, due to his lack of international experience. At the Olympics, however, Eve won a surprising gold medal in the first diving event contested at Paris, the plain high diving. Next the springboard was contested, but Eve managed only to finish fifth due to recurrent ear trouble and his performances were below form. His medical condition forced him to withdraw from the platform. A few weeks later, Eve also won the British ASA springboard title.

In 1925 Eve won both springboard and plain high diving (contested for the first time) titles at the Australian championships, but after succeeding his father as manager of Manly Swimming Baths in 1926, Eve’s amateur status was questioned and he had to retire from competition. In the 1930s, Eve managed the Pavilion at Manly and later worked as a wool classer, having studied wool classing through Sydney Technical College in 1921. During World War II, Eve enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force in March 1942, and served as a gunner in the Middle East until February 1943. Eve also remained involved in aquatics for most of his life and reportedly taught Murray Rose to swim. An examiner for the Royal Life Saving Society, Dick devised the Eve Rocker, a resuscitation device.