Grace Bussell
Grace Vernon Bussell (1860 – 1935), later Grace Drake-Brockman, was the 16-year-old heroine of the SS Georgette disaster in Western Australia on 1 December 1876. Bussell, along with Aboriginal stockman Sam Isaacs, helped save the lives of around 50 people with a quick thinking rescue from shore. She is now regarded as one of Australia's greatest heroines.[1]
Grace Bussell was lauded by the press at the time and became known as the 'Grace Darling of the West', after an Englishwoman who had rescued people in similar circumstances. She was awarded a silver medal by the Royal Humane Society.[2]
Grace was born to the well-known and prosperous Bussell family. She married Surveyor General Frederick Slade Drake-Brockman in 1882 and was the mother of Edmund Drake-Brockman and Deborah Vernon Hackett. She died aged 75 in Guildford.
Bussell is commemorated by having had several places named in her honour. One of these is the coastal hamlet of Gracetown, north of Margaret River. Another is the wheatbelt town of Lake Grace.[3] Additionally, a street in the Canberra suburb Cook is named after her.
Notes
- ^ Grace Vernon Bussell (1860 - 1935) - Find A Grave Memorial at www.findagrave.com
- ^ Geason, Susan. "Australian Heroines". (synopsis). Retrieved 2008-09-26.
- ^ Landgate - History of Country Town Names
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Further reading
- Stewart, Athol Frederick Ferguson (1946). Australia's Grace Darling. Perth: Patersons.
External links
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