Wednesday, August 14, 2024

Francis Thomas (Frank) O'Neill 1926-2024

 Francis Thomas (Frank) O'Neill, who died in Australia, 10 July, 2024, aged 97, was an Australian Olympic swimmer of the 1950s who went on to become a poolside instructor to the rich and famous, including Greta Garbo and Ginger Rogers.

He was born 30 September, 1926, son of Tom O'Neill and his wife Etta. Although O’Neill, who had won two silver medals at the 1950 Commonwealth Games and captained the Australia swim team at the 1952 Olympics, was greatly over-qualified to be teaching doggy-paddling stars of stage and screen, the work was financially rewarding and suited his penchant for mixing with high society.

He married 30 September, 1950 (div 1954), Patricia Enid Cavendish (born 30 June, 1925), scion of the Barons Waterpark, daughter of Brigadier-General Frederick William Lawrence Shepperd Cavendish, CMG, DSO (1877-1931), a polo-playing officer known as 'Caviar' Cavendish, and his wife, Enid Maude Cameron (nee Lindeman) (she died 5 January, 1973), a scion of the Croesus-rich Australian wine making family, daughter of Charles Lindeman. Enid was known as 'the Stucco Venus'.

O'Neill was a colourful character who married into great wealth, and he taught his famous clients in the glamorous surroundings of a large villa on Cap Ferrat on the French Riviera, which belonged to his mother-in-law, Enid, Countess of Kenmare. She was a member of the Australian Lindeman’s Wine family and nicknamed “Lady Killmore” by Somerset Maugham because she had outlived four husbands: successively, an American shipping tycoon, Roderick Cameron, of New York, a polo-playing soldier called “Caviar” Cavendish, the 1st Viscount Furness (1883-1940), and the 6th Earl of Kenmare (1891-1943).

O’Neill was great company, a wonderful raconteur and mesmerising to women. He had met the globetrotting Pat Cavendish in 1949 on board a ship to Sydney. They were wed in Nice the following year, but he had a loose attitude to their marriage vows, and though she initially put up with his extra-marital flings she was soon seeking a legal separation. Her mother, Lady Kenmare, hired a female private detective to dig some dirt on her son-in-law, but his charm was so great that the detective fell in love with him and refused to provide any evidence. None the less, a divorce eventually took place in 1954.

Once Frank and Pat got back together in 1969, and re-married, they based themselves in Somerset West in the Western Cape, although he continued to spend much of his time in Sydney, from where he sourced horses for Pat to breed and race in South Africa. In 2000, aged 73, he was given the honour of taking part in the Sydney 2000 Olympic torch relay, running his leg in Goulburn, New South Wales. By 2008 he and Pat had drifted apart again, and he returned to live full-time in Manly, moving in with a girlfriend, Jan Garrett, who looked after him until his death. Patricia O'Neill died in 2019.

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