Coogee Media

James John "Jack" Dagworthy was born in Sydney in 1908. His parents were James Dagworthy (1867 to 1925) and Mary Anne Dagworthy. He had a younger brother George (b. 1909) and a younger sister Ellen (b. 1911). He was just 16 on that fateful day. 1925 proved to be an eventful year for the teenager. His father James Dagworthy, who was the Chief Messenger at the New South Wales Department of Lands (a senior position) died suddenly in February, 1925. Then on the morning of Friday 27th March 1925, his younger sister, Ellen, was rushed to St Vincent's Hospital with appendicitis. Having an appendectomy in those days was not such a routine piece of surgery and still carried great risk. The Dagworthy family must have been wrent with concern as another member of the family faced possible death. SHARK ATTACKS Later that afternoon, despite his mother's protests, Jack, perturbed by his family's recent travails, decided to calm his nerves and headed down to the beach for an early evening swim. He entered the water at about 5.30pm at the south end of the beach near the Surf Club, one of the few people in the surf at the time. A few minutes later Beach Inspector, Tom Irwin, was watching from the lookout tower when he spotted a shark near young Jack. He rang out the shark bell as hard as he could, and then scrambled down the tower and headed for the shoreline. A surfer was struggling with a line which Irwin grabbed and wrapped around his waist and headed out to rescue young Jack Dagworthy. Just in time, because the shark had lunged at Dagworthy, badly injuring a leg. RESCUE Pulling Jack ashore on the sand, Irwin applied a tourniquet to Jack's mangled leg. An ambulance raced him to St. Vincent's Hospital where he was operated on. The surgeon tried to save his leg, but in the end had to amputate it above the knee. With the loss of blood, he needed a blood transfusion. In those days, a transfusion was accomplished by a direct infusion from another person. The volunteer donor in this case, ironically, was the Coogee's other Beach Inspector, Jack Brown, who was instrumental in rescuing the March 1922 shark attack victim, Mervyn Gannon. With these treatments, young Jack Dagworthy began a slow road to recovery and was discharged from hospital in May 1925. DRAMATIC TESTIMONY TO REPORTERS The shark which attacked Jack Dagworthy in the Coogee surf did not get away unscathed. The youth plunged his finger to its full length, into the monster's eyes, he told newspaper reporters from his hospital bed at St. Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst. Despite the loss of blood from the mangled leg, where the shark had bitten him, the patient has made rapid strides towards recovery. "Oh, yes," he said; "I hope to be soon well enough to go home."

The Dagworthy Family

ONLY ONE BITE

"Yes, bad luck-that sums it up, I was just on the point of leaving the surf when the shark attacked. I was just over waist deep in water. Just before this I noticed two breakers come rolling in, the rear one rising high above the other.

"My intention was to shoot to shore on the second. It looked more tempting. At this moment, however, I heard the clang of the shark bell. That decided me. I knew danger lurked near, so I prepared myself to swing on to the first breaker. "Before it got up to me something compelled me to look at the water ahead. It seemed strangely disturbed. "Then I felt an awful grab at my leg. I knew a shark had hold of me, though I had not seen it attack. Its teeth fastened on my leg. It seemed to take the flesh just above and below the knee in one bite. It lashed its tail, and as I put down my hand hoping that I could push it off, one eye of the monster was visible just below the surface of the water. I poked my finger, desperately, to its full length into the eye of the shark. It let go then, and never came back at me.

I'M COMING, JACK
Jack Dagworthy spoke in the highest terms of praise for the bravery of Tom Irwin.

When the shark bell rang, he said, Tom raced down the beach and plunged into the surf without care for his own safety. He swam towards him with powerful strokes. 'Oh, Tom,' he called out at last, the shark has got me. "I'm coming, Jack; I'm coming, Jack", he yelled.

"When the shark dashed off a black mist swam before my eyes. 'Oh, Tom l'm going blind,' but a few seconds later he was by my side. He caught me in his arms, and spoke encouraging words as he took me to the shore.

"I don't think I'll lose my-leg' I said to him, 'the shark was only a four-footer.' 'Oh, it wasn't even-that,' Tom replied, anxious to cheer me up, though, of course, he knew that the shark was much larger.

Tom Irwin was a daily visitor to the hospital but refused to talk with the patient about the rescue. "Forget all about the shark," he said to Jack and which Jack tried to do. Miss Dagworthy, sister of Jack, who is also in St Vincent's Hospital recovering from an operation for appendicitis, was not told the whole tragic story until later.

Remarkably, the same man who saved Dagworthy, Tom Irwin, ventured into the surf at Coogee on early March 29, 1925 and caught a 7 foot shark on a line that he had set overnight. There was, he said, little doubt that it was "the monster" that savagely attacked Jack Dagworthy. The head of the shark was cut off and the carcass towed out to sea.

Died 1962
Jack's friends and supporters created a benefit fund to raise money for him. Contributions were also made by Randwick Council, Coogee Surf Club, businesses, and the proceeds from dance held in Coogee in his support. He received £663 12s 2d, a reasonably large amount of money for those times. Press reports described him as being his family's "sole breadwinner", so perhaps he had left school at the time his fathers's death.

Unfortunately, I have not discovered much else about Jack Dagworthy after 1925. Sand's Sydney Directories for 1932 (the last year they were published) shows his mother living around the corner at 1/127 Arden Street, "Murie Flats". Since Sands listed the head of the household, perhaps others were living there as well. Jack married Doris Louisa Grout-Smith (1919-1994) in 1958. She was a neighbour of Jack's from Kurrawa Avenue and others who lived there knew of her as "Dot Smith". They had one child. Jack died, just four years later, in 1962, and is buried in the Catholic section of Randwick General Cemetery. Cemetery records show him still living at 16 Kurrawa Avenue at the time of his death in 1962. His younger brother, George, was living nearby at 11a Alexander Street, Coogee, but is buried in the Anglican section.

Time has taken a toll on Jack Dagworthy's Grave at Randwick General Cemetery, which includes his mother's & father's grave. The pyrimdal plinth has fallen down onto the grave behind. (Roman Catholic Vaults, plot 11)

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