Robert Murray Kavanaugh GC (18 December 1906 – 12 September 1976) was an Australian recipient of the Albert Medal, formerly the highest decoration for gallantry awarded to civilians or to military personnel for actions "not in the face of the enemy" in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth.

[1] On 12 January 1929, Kavanaugh was swimming at Bondi Beach approximately 45 metres (49 yd) from the shore when fourteen-year-old Colin Stewart was attacked by a shark and dragged underwater.

On the evening of the 12th January, 1929, Colin J. Stewart, a boy of 14 years of age, was bathing at Bondi Beach, New South Wales, some fifty yards from the shore, when he was attacked by a shark which inflicted serious injuries to his right side and hip.

On 22 April that year, he married Mary Sylvia Potter, a stenographer, in a Catholic ceremony at the Sacred Heart Church, Darlinghurst; the pair would later have a son and three daughters.

[1] In 1971, owing to the decline in status and significance of the Albert Medal, the British Government announced that the decoration would be abolished and living recipients would henceforth be regarded as holders of the George Cross.

[5] All six Australian Albert Medal recipients living at the time opted to accept the offer, Kavanaugh and four others travelling to London to receive their awards.

[Note 1] The five men, Jack Chalmers, Stanley Gibbs, William McAloney, Dick Richards and Kavanaugh, were presented with their George Crosses by Queen Elizabeth II in an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 12 July 1972.

[1] He was interred in the Field of Mars Cemetery, Sydney, in the Anglican section,[2] in the same grave as his wife Mary Sylvia, who had died on 27 July 1976, aged 68.