George Freeth
George Douglas Freeth Jr. was an American lifeguard, surfer, and swimming instructor of English and Native Hawaiian descent. His mother's side of the family ranked among Hawaiian royal ministers under King Kalakaua. His father's side of the family traced its ancestry to senior officers in the British military. Freeth's youth was spent in and around the ocean at Waikiki where he learned to swim and dive with local children. He later helped to renew interest in the traditional Hawaiian sport of surfing at Waikiki in the early twentieth century. He then popularized the sport in Southern California when he arrived in Los Angeles in 1907.
Freeth worked as a lifeguard throughout his nearly dozen years living in the Golden State and helped to build the foundation for the state's professional lifeguard service. His contributions also include competing as an amateur and professional swimmer and water polo player. He became a well-known swimming coach as well while working at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, training Olympic swimmers such as Duke Kahanamoku, Ludy Langer, and Ray Kegeris.
Freeth moved to San Diego in 1916 and helped to spread the popularity of surfing and swimming while employed as a swimming coach at the San Diego Rowing Club. He also continued his work as a lifeguard. He contracted the flu during the pandemic of 1918 and died in San Diego in April 1919. His contributions to California beach culture helped to create the state's renowned traditions in lifeguarding and surfing.
Family background
Freeth was born in Waikiki, Hawai`i. His mother, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Kaili Green, was the daughter of William Lowthian Green, a prominent English politician in Hawai'i. Freeth's maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Lepeka Kahalaikulani Grimes, was of Native Hawaiian and American descent.Freeth's father, George Douglas Freeth Sr., came from a distinguished British military lineage. Freeth's paternal grandfather, James Holt Freeth, and great-grandfather, Sir James Freeth, were both high-ranking generals in the British army. Freeth Sr. was born in Hythe, Kent, England, and spent several years in Ireland during childhood, perhaps the origin of the myth that Freeth's father was Irish.
Freeth had three brothers, and two younger sisters.
Early life
A Pacific Ocean childhood
Freeth grew up in Waikiki, and his Hawaiian culture encouraged him to spend time in the ocean. Aquatic sports were a large part of his early youth, where competitions allowed Freeth to develop the water skills that he would use throughout his life. Freeth is quoted as saying, “I can not remember the day when I couldn’t swim. The first days I can remember were those spent at Waikiki Beach, four miles distant from Honolulu, Hawaii, where, with hundreds of native boys, I swam and dove a greater part of the time.” Freeth grew up in the last years of the Hawaiian monarchy before American businessmen forced Queen Liliʻuokalani from power in 1893 during the Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.His youth included much travel—his father moved the family frequently due to his many business enterprises, at one point moving to Laysan island. Laysan was home to a large migrant seabird population that produced guano, which Freeth Senior's company mined for fertilizer. Freeth spent more than a year on the small island alongside the Japanese immigrant workers his father employed. Laysan and the surrounding ocean became a playground where Freeth swam and developed other aquatic skills in the waves. When he was fourteen, his father took him for a summer to Clipperton Island and another guano mining business.
Freeth spent his teenage years in athletic competitions and developed skills that he would later use to enhance lifeguarding and surfing in California. He competed in swimming, tub racing, and high diving at Sutro Baths in San Francisco beginning in 1898. While Freeth competed in California, his mother began divorce proceedings against his father who had abandoned the family and refused to send money home. Freeth traveled between Hawai`i and the United States during the years 1899–1903, pursuing work and success in athletic events.
Upon his return to Honolulu in 1899, Freeth attended 'Iolani College where he competed in multiple sports for the school. He was the goalie of the soccer team and won the pole vault competition at the end of the year. He worked as a painter at Honolulu Iron Works and played for the company's soccer team. Freeth succeeded in rowing, football, and swimming while in Honolulu and became the champion diver in the Hawaiian islands. He also traveled to Philadelphia to see his older brother Charlie in 1903. While in Philadelphia, Freeth won a diving tournament and freestyle swimming competition while working for the local telephone company.
Renewing interest in surfing at Waikiki
Freeth returned to Honolulu in 1903 and stayed until 1907. He is credited with renewing the popularity of surfing in Hawai'i during this time. He also continued participating in numerous sports, finding notable success in high diving and freestyle swimming. Freeth was so respected as an athlete that he coached local rowing and swimming clubs. Before Freeth's return to California, he taught surfing in the summer of 1907. Alexander Hume Ford, founder of the Outrigger Canoe Club, learned to surf from Freeth. Freeth also taught writer Jack London, who wrote about the experience in his essay "Riding The South Seas Surf".Freeth rose to prominence through his public demonstrations of surfing, diving, and swimming which aimed to attract tourists. The Hawaii Promotion Committee, formed in 1903 to increase tourism to the islands, played an important role in Freeth's career. In March 1907, the HPC invited the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce to visit Honolulu, where they observed Freeth performing a diving show at the Hotel Baths. Later that year, Freeth approached the HPC about traveling to California to give surfing exhibitions. The committee believed Freeth was the ideal ambassador to showcase surfing in Los Angeles as he had an Anglo-Hawaiian heritage and mastered the sport. The HPC hoped that surfing would captivate visitors and encourage them to visit or move to Hawai'i. In July 1907, he arrived at Venice Beach to perform surfing exhibitions and to work for the real estate developer Abbot Kinney. His contract was arranged by HPC's representative in Los Angeles, Lloyd Childs.
Lifeguard contributions
Heroic Rescue and a Gold Life-Saving Medal
When Freeth arrived in Venice in July 1907, the resorts along the Santa Monica Bay were dealing with a serious problem of drownings. Freeth started volunteering with the Venice Volunteering Lifesaving Corps to improve beach safety. Freeth's first stay in Venice was only five months, but he quickly became a respected leader and role model for many of the young lifeguards he trained. As captain of the Venice Life Saving Corps, Freeth ran mock rescues, boat drills, and swimming competitions, even introducing women to swim competitions.On December 16, 1908, during Freeth's second residence in Venice, he saved seven Japanese fishermen in one afternoon. The fishermen had set sail from Maikura that morning, a fishing village north of Venice. The skies began darkening in the early afternoon. Around 1:30 p.m. a boat containing two Japanese fishermen approached the Venice pier as they tried to get behind the breakwater to avoid the storm waves. Freeth dove over the breakwater and swam out to the fishermen. Once he reached the boat, he rowed them behind the breakwater where volunteers pulled the fisherman to safety. Freeth dove off the pier a second time and swam to two more fishermen in trouble. He climbed aboard their boat, but instead of taking them toward the pier, he guided the boat through the waves, making a safe landing on the beach. Witnesses described him as steering the boat "with a skill that enables the Hawaiians to pilot their surf boards over the breakers."
While Freeth was being treated for hypothermia in the lifeguard station, the sirens signaled an additional boat was in trouble. Freeth again dashed to the end of the pier and jumped off, saving the last three men. The rescue played out over nearly two hours, the multiple sirens bringing hundreds of spectators to the shore and pier. Freeth later received a Gold Life-Saving Medal for his heroism. Freeth demonstrated that it was possible to swim through storm waves, rather than only relying on a rowboat, to effectively save lives. His methods became standard practice among lifeguards thereafter.
The obverse of Freeth's gold medal shows rescuers in a small, storm-tossed boat pulling a man from the water, and the legend reads:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ACT OF CONGRESS JUNE 20, 1874
The legend on the reverse reads:
IN TESTIMONY OF HEROIC DEEDS IN SAVING LIFE FROM THE PERILS OF THE SEA
And in the reverse center is inscribed:
TO GEORGE FREETH FOR HEROICALLY RESCUING SEVEN FISHER-MEN