MacGillicuddy, Cyril Florance

BORN AUGUST 10TH 1889 IN MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA, eldest son of Dr Daniel Florance MacGillicuddy and Mary Anne Meaney of The Reeks at 11 Hoddle Street in Melbourne's inner city. His father, who played violin, piano and cello, was a member of the first Melbourne Symphony Orchestra founded and conducted by Alberto Zelman. Daniel and his brother Maurice were physicians, a tradition followed by their sons. Maurice was captain of the Richmond Union Bowling Club team which won the Victorian Bowling Association President's Trophy in season 1915–16, president of St Patrick's Old Collegians in 1920, and the Newman Society at the University of Melbourne by 1925.

Educated at St Patrick's Eastern Hill in Melbourne, and Xavier College at Kew in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, Cyril and his brother Reg graduated with a combined Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the School of Medicine at Melbourne University and became medical practitioners at Richmond. Both were members of the Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC) Reserve at Royal Park in Melbourne and served on the battlefronts of the Great War.

Blue-eyed with dark brown hair and a medium complexion, Cyril played ice hockey for the Beavers, one of the original Australian four ice hockey clubs. In 1910, he was goaltender of the first Victorian ice hockey team to compete in Sydney, captained by Robert Jackson with Andy Reid, John Goodall, Woods, Blair and Keith Curwen-Walker. He was 21 years-old when he played his first national ice hockey competition, and although Victoria retained the interstate title it had won the year before, it was a little harder this time. Cyril's sister, Merna, became the Ladies Figure Skating Champion of Australia the same year.

Like Professors Bobbie Jackson, Albert Enders and Jack Gordon, Cyril was closely connected with Melbourne's theatre world, while also a very accomplished ice dancer and instructor at the Academy of Skating in Melbourne. He often exhibited fancy skating and waltzed with John Goodall's cousin, Billy Clegg. He demonstrated free and figure skating, while Enders and Sadie Cambridge exhibited fancy and acrobatic skating, including the "Swiss Death Swing".

Cyril married Lilian May McBride at Melbourne on May 18th, 1920 [90] eldest daughter of James McBride and Jessie Kent of "Rozelle", Innes Road, Durban, South Africa. They lived at The Reeks in Barkers Road, Hawthorn. Their daughter, Barbara Anne (Peggy), was born on November 12th 1927, and son Peter John on January 25th, 1931. They also had a daughter named Olive. [178]

Cyril was a member of the Playhouse group that established Glaciarium Ltd in 1926, a publicly-listed company that leased the Glaciarium ice rink at City Road from the new owners, the Metropolitan Gas Company. The company purchased the Melbourne Glaciarium lock, stock and barrel from the gas company in 1931. Cyril became Chairman of Directors, with Leo Molloy as Managing Director and Secretary.

Also that year, Cyril was a foundation Council member of the National Ice Skating Association of Australia with Chas Maclurcan, Reg Jefferies and Robert Croll from Sydney, and Frank Mercovich and Jack Gordon from Victoria. The Council joined the International Skating Union (ISU) in 1932, although Australia did not contest the World Figure Skating Championships until 1947. Macgillicuddy and Maclurcan set the direction for the new council of the NISAA, a task that involved considerable compromise. A system consistent with ISU standards was not achieved in either of their lifetimes.

In 1933 and 1934, Cyril was Australian National Figure Skating Pairs champion with Australian women's champion, Winsome Thackeray. At the age of 45, he and Thackeray also won the 1934 National Dance title from Sydney Croll and Kath Kennedy. The pair also won the Australian National Waltzing championship in 1930, the last year the associations in Sydney and Melbourne judged titles separately.

In 1947, MacGillicuddy became Australia's first-ever International Skating Union (ISU) judge, officiating at the 1947 World Figure Skating Championships in Stockholm, where Patricia Molony placed 12th/19. Cyril's daughter Anne was Australian National Dance Champion with National Men's champion, William Taylor from 1947 untll 1951. The couple married at St Peter's Toorak in 1950.

From a family of notable Victorian sportsmen and theatricals, Cyril MacGillicuddy was a Goodall Cup champion goaltender in 1910, a figure skating gold medalist, a State and National pairs and dance champion several times, founding Chairman of the rink management company Glaciarium Ltd, and Australia's first-ever International Skating Union (ISU) judge. He was also a founding member of the first national ice skating association in 1931, "which paved the way for the fine successes of Australian skaters of today", wrote Joan Dean. "Ably led by Charles MacLurcan and Dr Cyril MacGillicuddy, who started National tests on the lines of those of the NSA, Australians now rank as worthy contenders in International Competitions". [416]

Cyril died June 20th 1960 and was interred with his family at the Melbourne General Cemetery. His contribution to Australian ice sports in competition, coaching and business administration, commenced in the earliest years and spanned four decades.