Clegg, Billy (Fraser)

BORN PHYLLIS HAMMOND CLEGG in St Kilda in 1892, she was the daughter of Nottingham-born Colonel William Hammond Clegg (1857–1932) and Mary Ann Ellen Goodall. A first cousin of John Goodall of Ice Hockey Cup fame through her mother Mary, the daughter of Goodall's grandfather. Her father became managing director of John Goodall & Co, the Queen Street stock and share brokers where her cousin worked.

Billy and her two sisters grew up at Mendip, 36 Grey Street, St Kilda, to become leading members of Melbourne society. Hundreds of young people attended the fancy dress dances Billy and her sister Dolly hosted in the St Kilda Town Hall and elsewhere during the early-1900s. At school she was expert at swimming, golf, hockey and rowing. Both girls were regulars at the first balls at Melbourne Glaciarium, where Billy ranked among the top Australian skaters of her time, on a par with Mirey Reid, Doris Armitage, Merna MacGillicuddy, and Sydney's Fannie Salmon (née Trotter). In 1914, Trotter was the first Australian woman to compete in the ISU World Figure Skating Championships, but representing Sweden.

Billy and Claude Langley, the prime mover of the national skating association in Melbourne in 1910-11, were the principal pair of five couples who helped at the opening night ceremony of Sydney Glaciarium in 1907. [4] She was also very popular at Prince's Skating Club in London, one of the design influences of the first rinks in Adelaide and Melbourne. Her "waltzing was a joy for both partner and spectator in the years just before the First World War at Prince's," wrote British skater Joan Dean in the History of Ice Skating, [416] "where she attracted great attention and with whom we all wanted to dance". She no doubt trained with James Brewer and Miss Dent, the Melbourne Glaciarium instructors from Prince's, the home ice of Australia's first skating instructors. She caused a similar skating sensation at the Adelboden Grand Hotel in Switzerland in 1912, and won first prize at the Ball as the "Merry Widow".

In 1913, at the age of 21, she became the third Australian Ladies' Skating Champion before the titles were contested independently of the association in Sydney. [5, 377] She also won the national Waltzing title with Cyril Macgillicuddy. [5] A noted sportswoman, she was a member of the Sorrento Golf Club and drove John Goodall's Aston Martin in the RACV Hill Climb at Belgrave in Victoria in 1924. She danced on ice at Melbourne Glaciarium that year with Hilda Grice and others in a butterfly ballet choreographed by future World's Professional Pairs champions, Albert Enders and Sadie Cambridge. [7] She also became a skilled skier at Mt Kosciusko, always motivated by the challenge of learning the skills of a sport, rather than winning competitions.

On February 17th 1914, she married Simon Fraser, an Olympic rower, a VFL footballer with Essendon and University, and goalie for the Beavers ice hockey club in Melbourne, one of Australia's original four. She spent 5 years — most of her married life — at Nyang, the Fraser family station of 35,000 sheep managed by Simon near Moulamein, NSW. She helped with the station work, especially during the drought in 1914 and the flood in 1917. In 1919, both fell ill from pneumonic influenza at Penshurst in Victoria after attending the Warrnambool races. Her husband died from the illness aged 33. His legacies are the Simon Fraser Boathouse near Princes Bridge in Melbourne, his family's memorial gift to Melbourne Grammar, and the Simon Fraser Scholarship at the University of Melbourne.

In 1928, the year after the aero club movement allowed women to gain a pilot's license, Billy was a pupil of Captain F G M Sparks at the Stag Lane Aerodrome in England, and became one of the first women aviators in Victoria. [2] By the end of 1929, the number of women pilots had increased to 18. [1] She was one of the six "lady pilots" who welcomed Amy Johnson to Melbourne on her record-making solo flight from England in 1930. [7]

Billy often stayed with her mother-in-law, Lady Fraser, at Nyland in Sorrento, built by her grandfather John Goodall, and attended many of the same social events, including meetings at Government House, Flemington and Caulfied Cup meetings. Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser was a nephew by marriage. Like Lady Fraser, she frequently contributed to charity fundraising and the war effort, and continued to be known as Mrs Simon Fraser until her death in Melbourne in 1962.

Tony Yencken recalls "...when she was aged 60, she said to me one day at Portsea, 'Tony — I have never tried water ski-ing, would you show me how to do it?' My heart sank as I said that I would be pleased to do so, for I expected the endless attempts involved in getting a novice up on top of the water, and then the endless attempts for them to get stabilized, especially with someone of her age. However, a couple of days later we were in the boat together with the skis. She hopped into the water, put on the skis, put the tips up as instructed, I straightened the tow rope and started to apply the engine power.

"I was amazed, she rose out of the water like a professional and we set off for a run alongside Shelly Beach. After a while she signaled that she wished to return, and on approaching the baths she cast off the rope and sailed across the water until she sank. 'Thank you' she said, 'I enjoyed that, I always wanted to know what it would be like. I don't want to do it again, I'm satisfied.'" [2]

Billy is interred at Brighton Cemetery in Melbourne with her mother and father.