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I have just received this message from my Uncle in Australia......
At long, long last; and purely by luck & accident, I now know that we are genetically connected to Fred Cavill and his famous family of world class swimmers; the family that introduced the freestyle(Australian crawl stroke) and butterfly stroke to the world.
I have been trying to find this connection for many years now, but without success. A couple of days ago a lady in Wales contacted me saying that she's been told that I am a bit of an "expert"(I prefer "experienced") on Australian Cavills, in particular, Fred Cavill & Family.
To cut a long story short, she found out that James Cavill, the wheelwright from Abridge in Essex, after whom "Cavill's Walk" in the Hainault Forest is named, was Fred Cavill's Uncle. James Cavill and my GG Grandad, Phil Cavill, had the same GG Grandfather.
Briefly, Fred Cavill was born in west London in 1839, went on to become a well-known swimmer, emigrated to Victoria in Australia in 1879, moved to Manly near Sydney in New South Wales, set up a floating baths in order to teach people how to swim, and also taught his children how to swim. Six of his sons went to become world class & famous swimmers, all of whom earnt their living from swimming; and Fred's grandson, Dick Eve, won the first(only?) gold medal for diving at the 1924 Paris Olympics.
It now has finally been establshed that Fred Cavill's line came from the same part of north-west Essex as our Cavill line; the area that I have called "Cavill Country" for a long while now. I now know why my wife Mavis reckons that I look so much like Percy Cavill, one of Fred's famous family of swimmers:-)
I have found this quite exciting and this may explain where I get my love of swimming (swimming mad would have been more an apt description when I was a teen) from!
At long, long last; and purely by luck & accident, I now know that we are genetically connected to Fred Cavill and his famous family of world class swimmers; the family that introduced the freestyle(Australian crawl stroke) and butterfly stroke to the world.
I have been trying to find this connection for many years now, but without success. A couple of days ago a lady in Wales contacted me saying that she's been told that I am a bit of an "expert"(I prefer "experienced") on Australian Cavills, in particular, Fred Cavill & Family.
To cut a long story short, she found out that James Cavill, the wheelwright from Abridge in Essex, after whom "Cavill's Walk" in the Hainault Forest is named, was Fred Cavill's Uncle. James Cavill and my GG Grandad, Phil Cavill, had the same GG Grandfather.
Briefly, Fred Cavill was born in west London in 1839, went on to become a well-known swimmer, emigrated to Victoria in Australia in 1879, moved to Manly near Sydney in New South Wales, set up a floating baths in order to teach people how to swim, and also taught his children how to swim. Six of his sons went to become world class & famous swimmers, all of whom earnt their living from swimming; and Fred's grandson, Dick Eve, won the first(only?) gold medal for diving at the 1924 Paris Olympics.
It now has finally been establshed that Fred Cavill's line came from the same part of north-west Essex as our Cavill line; the area that I have called "Cavill Country" for a long while now. I now know why my wife Mavis reckons that I look so much like Percy Cavill, one of Fred's famous family of swimmers:-)
I have found this quite exciting and this may explain where I get my love of swimming (swimming mad would have been more an apt description when I was a teen) from!
God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done
...(probably nicked a loaf of bread if they were!)
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