GALLANTRY OF SEA CADET

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26383, 30 March 1951, Page 8

GALLANTRY OF SEA CADET

POSTHUMOUS AWARD NAVY LEAGUE CROSS PRESENTED The first Navy League Silver Cross for Gallantry ever awarded to a Sea Cadet in the Dominions was handed to the parents of the late Cadet Murray Gavin Rea by the Dominion president of the New Zealand Navy League (Mr R. L. Reid) at a ceremony at the headquarters of the Canterbury division of the Sea Cadet Corps last evening. Before handing the Silver Cross to Mr and Mrs F. L. Rea the president read a letter from the president of the Navy League (Lord Lloyd) which accompanied- the award. Cadet Rea, who was killed in an accident some months ago, was awarded the Navy League Silver Cross posthumously for an act of gallantry performed in 1949 when he was 13 years of age. He saved another cadet from drowning and possible death from injuries during a week-end camp at the Canterbury division’s training quarters on Quail Island. In a report which was forwarded to Navy League headquarters in London by the Dominion secretary (Mr C. V. Rawley), the commanding officer of the Sea Cadet Corps at the time, Lieutenant-Commander B. Box, said there was no doubt that Cadet Rea executed a brave and difficult rescue. Cadet Rea and Cadet A. B. Donald Bilton were trapped by the tide while rambling round the seashore at Quail Island. They decided to climb up the cliffs which were high and very dangerous, but Bilton fell when he had climbed about 20ft and, after striking some rocks, fell into the sea unconscious. Rea scrambled down the cliff and rescued Bilton from the sea. After dragging Bilton ashore Rea revived him and then pulled him up the cliff as far as he could. Bilton lapsed into unconsciousness several times so Rea decided against going for help as he feared Bilton might fall into the sea again.

Rea washed and bandaged Bilton as best he could and then settled him down for the night which was fast approaching. The cadets’ absence was discovered at evening quarters and a search party at sea discovered and rescued them. They were both suffering from exposure. Lieutenant F. J. Glanville, commanding officer of the corps in Canterbury, said that the parents would have preferred a private ceremony, but the division wished that the conduct of Murray Rea to become part of the sea cadet tradition and be an example to those who followed after.

Murray Rea performed this deed of gallantry, not knowing that any medal for courage existed, said Mr Reid. His act in such a spirit showed the type of boy the Sea Cadet Corps desired to produce, and it was also a tribute to the home from which he came. Of all gifts sympathy was the most cherished. The Navy League and the Sea Cadet Corps again expressed their sympathy to Mr and Mrs Rea in the untimely death of so gallant a lad. The cross was presented with the whole Sea Cadet company at attention and others who attended standing in silence in tribute to Murray Rea.