Grace Bussell

Biography

Grace was born to the well-known and prosperous Bussell family. At age 7, she discovered Wallcliffe cave.

Lauded by the press at the time of the rescue, she 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, and also a gold watch and chain from the British Government.

According to an account in the local Inquirer and Commercial News,

The boat swamped, they were all in the water, and in the greatest danger, when, on the top of the steep cliff appeared a young lady on horseback. Those who were present have told me that they did not think that a horse could come down that cliff, but down that dangerous place this young lady rode at speed; there were lives to be saved, and, with the same fearless and chivalrous bravery that urged Grace Darling to peril her life for fellow creations, and gave her a name in all English history thereafter, Grace Bussell rode down that cliff, urged her horse into boiling surf, and out beyond the second line of roaring breakers, till she reached the boat where the women and children were in such peril. Her horse stumbled over the rope and she was nearly lost, but managed to get alongside the boat, and then with as many women and children clinging to her and the horse as possible, she made for the shore and landed them. A man was left on the boat, and he could not get to shore till Miss Bussell sent her black servant on horseback to aid him. So furious was the surf that it took four hours to land 50 people, and every boat engaged was capsised.

She married Frederick Slade Drake-Brockman (1857–1917) in 1880; he served as Surveyor General of Western Australia from 1915 to 1917. They had three daughters and four sons, including Edmund (1884–1949), Geoffrey (1885–1977), and Deborah (1887–1965).

She died aged 75 in Guildford, Western Australia.

Legacy

Bussell is commemorated by several places named in her honour. One of these is the coastal hamlet of Gracetown, Western Australia, north of Margaret River. Another is the Western Australian wheatbelt town of Lake Grace. Both of these were named after her by her husband. Additionally, a street in the Canberra suburb of Cook is named after her.