WAR-BLINDED HERO

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 76, 31 March 1939, Page 11

WAR-BLINDED HERO

SAVED DROWNING MAN

HUMANE SOCIETY AWARD

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London Representative.)

LONDON, March 6.

A St, Duhstan'S man, Mr. A. \E. Bettaney, of Fenton, Staffordshire,- has ' been awarded the honorary testimonial on vellum : by. the Royal Humane Society for his. efforts to /save a drowning man last July. Mr. Bettaney was oh holiday at Trusthorpe, Lincolnshire, and was swimming in the sea about two hundred yards Out. He -was turning back when he heard cries for help from' a man and woman some distance out. The man was in difficulties, and Mr. Bettaney : swam to him and: held his head above water for some time. The man, however, struggled violently until both were becoming exhausted. Mr. Bettaney" shouted for'help, arid just as he was despairing of saving the man or himself, three men with a life-saving buoy went -to their assistance and brought them to the shore. Mr. Bettaney, whose sight was practically gone as a result of wounds received in France "during the war, has been trained as a joiner: by St. Dun-, stan's. Like many other St. Dunstan's men, he is a keen swimmer. Sounds from, the shore give him h^s direction when swimming in the sea-