Charles Bastard
Robert Charles Bastard (4 February 1863 – 6 November 1941) was an Australian swimming teacher who succeeded his father Thomas Barnabas Bastard as lessee of Adelaide's "City Baths". When the council upgraded the facility to include the city's only Olympic-size swimming pool, Bastard was retained as a supervisor. History Bastard's parents, Thomas Barnabas Bastard (died 10 September 1883) and Elizabeth Lucy Bastard (c 1821 – 23 August 1877) immigrated to South Australia by the William Stuart in 1852, and in later years would found the Old Colonists' Association. Also on board was their son John Bastard (22 October 1843 – 17 June 1908), who would become posts and telegraph master at Port Adelaide, and several other children, including one born on voyage. His father, a bootmaker by trade, had been taught to swim by Captain Beckwith, father of Fred Beckwith (1821–1898), and applied his knowledge in teaching other colonists at what passed in those days for a bathing pool — a fenced-off section of the River Torrens, upstream from what is now the Morphett Street bridge. The original City Baths (1863–1913), on King William Road below Parliament House, was erected by the Adelaide City Council, and its first manager ("Keeper