In 1876, as a 16-year-old, she was involved with Sam Isaacs in the rescue of SS Georgette, for which she was awarded the Royal Humane Society's Silver Medal.

[2] According to an account in the local Inquirer and Commercial News,[3] 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.

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.

It was a great feat for a girl of 16 but she was later given credit for almost the entire rescue.She married Frederick Slade Drake-Brockman (1857–1917) in 1880;[2] he served as Surveyor General of Western Australia from 1915 to 1917.