Sir Donald Bradman died peacefully in his sleep at his Adelaide home on Sunday morning.
The world’s greatest cricketer was 92.
“I believe he died peacefully in his sleep and his family were there not long after,” Bradman Museum curator and close friend Richard Mulvaney said.
“He was suffering from pneumonia before Christmas and was hospitalised for a short period, went home before Christmas and was really trying to recover.”
Mr Mulvaney said a memorial service would be held at Adelaide’s St Peter’s Cathedral and Adelaide Oval some weeks after a private funeral (March 22 the most likely date).
However, locals would be able to pay their last respects at a Bowral service in St Jude’s Church, where The Don sang in the choir as a boy.
“His life was just a marvellous sense of achievement, I know he would want us to recognise that and celebrate it, Mr Mulvaney said.
“It’s something that we just have to get used to, not having Don Bradman around.”
Bradman Museum’s Jacquelyn Semple-Nolan yesterday afternoon said The Don passed away, with photos of his late wife, Lady Jessie, bedside.
“It was not unexpected and he had been under constant medical supervision,” she said.
Ms Semple-Nolan said Mr Mulvaney had been fielding interviews to media outlets all over the world at the rate of about 12 an hour.
“Richard, on hearing the news, was devastated. He had been to see Sir Donald a couple of times recently.”
Mr Mulvaney asked, in accordance with Sir Don’s wishes, that donations to a new Bradman memorial foundation be sent in lieu of flowers.
The special trust will be spent entirely on promoting and encouraging cricket in disadvantaged communities, he said.
“In particular it was Sir Donald’s wish that Aboriginal Australians be part of that benefit.”
The museum would also hold a tribute exhibition in his honour later this week.
Mayor Phil Yeo said Bowral’s 8,500 residents would grieve quietly for Sir Donald.
“The community is very saddened that finally The Don has passed away,” Councillor Yeo said.
“I’m sure today that most of our citizens will feel a very close affinity with the Boy from Bowral.”
Sir Donald was born at Cootamundra in southern New South Wales on August 27, 1908, but grew up in Bowral, about 100km south-west of Sydney.
At age 12, he played his first competitive game on the Bowral ground that now bears his name, scoring 115 not out and taking eight wickets.
He married Jessie Menzies in 1932 and the couple lived together for 65 years in the same home in Adelaide.
However, Sir Donald felt increasingly lonely after her death from cancer in 1997.
Sir Donald is survived by the couple’s two children, John and Shirley.
Following his retirement from first class cricket in 1949, Sir Donald became an Australian selector and served two three-year terms as ch\airman of the Australian Cricket Board.
Mr Mulvaney said there was no question Sir Donald was the greatest batsman who ever lived.
In 52 Test matches from 1928 to 1948, he scored 6,996 runs at an average of 99.94.
Sir Donald chose to become a recluse in his final years to protect his family’s privacy, according to Mr Mulvaney.
“There were never any years of estrangement,”he said.
John Bradman, told Southern Highland News at his father’s 92nd birthday gathering at Bradman Museum, that Sir Donald “tried to find fun and the joy of it all” during his cricketing days.
In a statement yesterday he said; “The family asks that the privacy of the funeral be respected. The memorial service will be open to the public including of course, the media.”
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