Trove Tuesday - Lifesaver Hero

Page 3 of The Argus,
Monday 28 January 1946

I’m taking up the geneablogger challenge of writing a Tuesday blog post from info gleaned from Trove. For some of my family who don’t know what Trove is – it is the National Library of Australia’s wonderful search resource, and not just for digitised newspapers.

My great grandfather Leo James GRENFELL died while an on-duty lifesaver at Brighton Beach on 27 January 1946. 

He was aged 59 and from what I read, was filling in while the younger members were away at an annual surf lifesaver carnival.

We hadn’t known much about him because his son Keith Leo GRENFELL, my grandfather had died in 1944 when my dad was just a young boy.

My dad always called him ‘gas-producer grandad’ and as kids we used to giggle about what that meant. It actually meant that he had an early car with a gas producer on the back of it.

Leo Grenfell (right) at his son's wedding in 1936.
Keith Grenfell, my grandfather is on the left.