Philip Garnet Summers 1
- Born: 12 Jan 1909, South Perth, WA 2
- Died: 25 Jan 1930, Off Rottnest Island, WA 2
General Notes:
There is a photo of 3 30? yr old men in MS Suitcase captioned "Philip Garnet? Summers - marooned? Rottnest WA 26-1-30" -
Did he die in a swimming accident? Mary Shaw remembered something about this. The beach photo 014.062 must have been taken near the end of his life.
Philip and another man lost their lives at sea approaching Rottnest Island on 25th January 1930. A third member of the crew managed to swim to Rottnest to raise the alarm but the family yacht "Wattle" and the other two were never found. Philip and his crew had sailed down the Swan River from South Perth to Fremantle in the late afternoon/evening with the intention of overnighting at Fremantle before crossing to Rottnest next morning. Apparently however, with a full moon and favourable wind (typical easterly ?), they decided to continue across. Perhaps they hit a reef off Rottnest. Despite his relative youth, Philip was an experienced sailor and a very strong swimmer. It is believed that he chose to stay with the other man, an English visitor who was a poor swimmer, while the third (Gordon D'Arcy, later Judge D'Arcy) swam for help. [Bob Summers 2004]
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