Harold Hardwick

Harold Hardwick
Personal information
Surname:	Harold Hampton Hardwick
Nation:	Australasia
Swimming style (s) :	Freestyle swimming
Society:	Enterprise Swimming Club
Birthday:	December 14, 1888
Place of birth:	Sydney , Australia
Date of death:	February 22, 1959
Place of death:	Sydney , Australia
Medal table
Olympic games 1 × 0 × 2 ×

Harold Hampton Hardwick (born December 14, 1888 in Sydney , † February 22, 1959 ) was an Australian swimmer , boxer and rugby union player .

youth

Harold was born in Balmain , a borough of Sydney , to George Henry Hardwick and his wife Priscilla. He started swimming at an early age and won his first competitions at the age of 11. At the age of 16 he attended Fort Street High School and became the master of the public schools in Sydney. He played on the school's rugby team and ran the lifeguard team.

Sports career

In 1907, Hardwick won over 100 yards at the New South Wales Championships in 61.6 seconds. In 1909 he finished second in the Australasian Championships over 100 and 880 yards. Two years later he became the Australasian Champion in the 220, 440 and 880 yards freestyle. At the 1911 Festival of Empire Games in London , a forerunner of today's Commonwealth Games , Hardwick won over 110 yards in freestyle as well as in heavyweight boxing. After the Games, he stayed in England to compete in the National Swimming Championships, where he was victorious over 100, 220 and 440 yards of freestyle. In 1912 he was nominated for the combined delegation of Australia and New Zealand that competed under the name Australasia at the 1912 Summer Olympics . Since boxing was not part of the Games for the only time in Olympic history, he could only compete in swimming.

About 100-meter freestyle he was eliminated in the semifinals. About 400-meter freestyle and 1,500-meter freestyle he was successful and won in both races the bronze medal. After he had set a new world record in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay race together with Cecil Healy , Leslie Boardman and Malcolm Champion , the relay set it again in the final and became Olympic champion.

After returning to Australia, Hardwick ended his swimming career at international level, joining the Manly Surf Club and taking part in national championships. He also played rugby union for the first division club RUFC Eastern Suburbs .

In 1914 he won the national championship in the heavyweight division in amateur boxing and in 1915 became a professional boxer. In the same year he won the national championship. In one of his last professional fights in 1916 he lost to Les Darcy . At the start of this fight Hardwick knocked out two of Darcy's front teeth. The quick treatment of the teeth after the fight became infected Darcy's teeth, from which he got blood poisoning and died at the age of 21. It is believed, however, that the ultimate cause of death was pneumonia .

Military Service and Later Life

Harold Hardwick 1919

In August 1917, Hardwick joined the Australian Imperial Force and served as a pioneer in the Middle East with the Air Force No.2 Signal Squadron during World War I. In October 1918 he was released at the end of the war. He maintained a commission in the militia from 1921 and served from 1940 to 1942 as a lieutenant colonel in the 1st Cavalry Divisional Signals .

After the war he worked for the New South Wales Education Department and helped establish the structure of physical education and swimming programs in schools. He died of coronary occlusion on February 22, 1959 in Rushcutters Bay , Sydney .

Web links

Commons : Harold Hardwick  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography (English)
• Harold Hardwick in the database of sports-reference.com ( Memento from April 17, 2020 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Boxing. In: Nepean Times: February 5 , 1959, accessed May 16, 2020 .