Frederick McEvoy: Difference between revisions

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==Sporting achievements==
==Sporting achievements==
===Bobsleigh===
===Bobsleigh===
McEvoy was the [[List of flag bearers for Great Britain at the Olympics|British flag bearer]] at the [[1936 Winter Olympics]] in [[Garmisch-Partenkirchen]], [[Germany]].<ref name="SR">[http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/mc/freddie-mcevoy-1.html Freddie McEvoy Biography and Olympic Results]. Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Accessed 26 October 2011.</ref> He was part of the team that won the bronze medal in the four-man event and also finished fourth in the two-man event. He went on to win five medals at the FIBT World Championships between 1937 and 1939 including three golds.
McEvoy was the [[List of flag bearers for Great Britain at the Olympics|British flag bearer]] at the [[1936 Winter Olympics]] in [[Garmisch-Partenkirchen]], [[Germany]].<ref>[http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/countries/GBR/ Great Britain]. Olympics at Sport-Reference.com Sports Reference LLC. Accessed 26 October 2011.</ref> He was part of the team that won the bronze medal in the four-man event and also finished fourth in the two-man event.<ref name="SR">[http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/mc/freddie-mcevoy-1.html Freddie McEvoy Biography and Olympic Results]. Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Accessed 26 October 2011.</ref> He went on to win five medals at the FIBT World Championships between 1937 and 1939 including three golds.


He was also a rider of the [[Cresta Run]] in St. Moritz.
He was also a rider of the [[Cresta Run]] in St. Moritz.

Revision as of 20:36, 26 October 2011

Frederick McEvoy
Medal record
Men's Bobsleigh
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Four-man
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 1937 Cortina d'Ampezzo Two-man
Gold medal – first place 1937 St. Moritz Four-man
Gold medal – first place 1938 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Four-man
Silver medal – second place 1938 St. Moritz Two-man
Silver medal – second place 1939 Cortina d'Ampezzo Four-man

Frederick Joseph McEvoy (12 February 1907 – 7 November 1951) was an Australian/British multi-discipline sportsman and socialite. He had most success as a bobsledder in the late 1930s, winning several medals including three golds at the FIBT World Championships.

Sporting achievements

Bobsleigh

McEvoy was the British flag bearer at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.[1] He was part of the team that won the bronze medal in the four-man event and also finished fourth in the two-man event.[2] He went on to win five medals at the FIBT World Championships between 1937 and 1939 including three golds.

He was also a rider of the Cresta Run in St. Moritz.

Motor racing

McEvoy came fifth in the Vanderbilt Cup, racing a Maserati along the 300-mile course "considered by European road veterans to be probably the most severe test for man and car in the world".[3]

Personal life

McEvoy was described by newspapers as an "internationally known Australian playboy" and a "popular, handsome, heiress hunter".[4][5]

There have been claims that McEvoy covertly worked for the Third Reich, was an antisemite, and a Nazi sympathiser.[6] The FBI, who had him under surveillance along with several of his friends and associates, described him as "an international pimp who is interested in his own well-being and probably not engaged in activities detrimental to the interests of the country."[7]

Relationships

McEvoy was married several times, taking his first wife in 1940. Beatrice Cartwright, a member of Pratt family and heir to a fortune from Standard Oil, was twice his age and had lived with McEvoy for several years before their marriage.[2] The union did not last, and in 1942 Cartwright accused McEvoy of being unfaithful with "three well-known society women".[8] The divorce was granted on the grounds of misconduct. McEvoy was not present for the decision as he was embroiled in a statutory rape case that had been opened against close friend Errol Flynn.[9] 17-year-old Betty Hansen had accused Flynn of committing the offence during at party at McEvoy's Bel Air home, but McEvoy continued to publicly defend Flynn.[8]

In 1942, McEvoy married the daughter of the president of the Standard Oil of Kansas. Irene Wrightsman was 18 at the time of their wedding, nearly half his age. Wrightsman was disinherited by her father after she eloped and the marriage lasted just two years.[2][5]

In 1945 he met Barbara Hutton,[2] another wealthy heiress who had just divorced third husband Cary Grant. Hutton was warned to stay away from McEvoy by friends and relatives and they assumed that the pair would marry as soon as he "legally divorces penniless Irene".[5] The couple were never wed, though Hutton bought a chalet at a ski resort in Franconia, New Hampshire and the they lived together for a time. Hutton married again in 1947 and she remained friends with McEvoy who went on to marry Claude Stephanie Filatre, a French fashion model.[2]

Errol Flynn married Patrice Wymore at a ceremony in Monte Carlo in 1950 with McEvoy as his best man and Filatre as the matron of honour.[10] At the time McEvoy as said to have been living in Cannes aboard his schooner Black Joke.[11]

Death

McEvoy, his wife, and several others were sailing just off the coast of Morocco on his 104-ton schooner, Kangaroo on 7 November 1951. A storm wrecked the ship and McEvoy swam to shore to look for help, leaving Claude Stephanie afloat on the mast. He was unable to find any assistance and returned to his wife. The pair tried to swim back to land but the waves were too strong. Their bodies and those of four others were discovered the following day.[2] One of the three survivors gave the name of Walter Praxmarer but was identified as Manfred Lenther, an Austrian man charged with murdering a woman in Berlin in 1945.[12]

References

  1. ^ Great Britain. Olympics at Sport-Reference.com Sports Reference LLC. Accessed 26 October 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Freddie McEvoy Biography and Olympic Results. Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Accessed 26 October 2011.
  3. ^ Motor Car Racing, American Contest, The Vanderbilt Cup. Western Argus. 20 October 1936. Accessed 26 October 2011.
  4. ^ Freddy McEvoy was playboy. The Argus. 7 March 1954. Accessed 26 October 2011.
  5. ^ a b c Woolworth Heiress May Marry Austn.. The Courier-Mail. 13 April 1946. Accessed 26 October 2011.
  6. ^ Higham, Charles. The Missing Errol Flynn File. New Statesman. 17 April 2000. Accessed 26 October 2011.
  7. ^ McNulty, Thomas. Errol Flynn: the life and career. McFarland. 2004. p. 168.
  8. ^ a b Flynn's Host Sued For Divorce. The Advertiser. 28 October 1942. Accessed 26 October 2011.
  9. ^ Oil Heiress Granted Divorce. The Morning Bulletin. 30 October 1942. Accessed 26 October 2011.
  10. ^ Flynn Weds Starlet In Monte Carlo. The Sydney Morning Herald. 24 October 1950. Accessed 26 October 2011.
  11. ^ Sydney Man To Be Best Man For Errol Flynn. The Sydney Morning Herald. 20 October 1950. Accessed 26 October 2011.
  12. ^ Strange Twist To Shipwreck Tragedy. The Sydney Morning Herald. 14 November 1951. Accessed 26 October 2011.

External links

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