USED HIS TEETH

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20153, 24 January 1940, Page 5

USED HIS TEETH

HERO OF ATHENIA

“AN OLD SOLDIER TRICK” CHILD RESCUED & When the liner Athenia was hit 'ey a torpedo, a Mr. Bowen, of Vancouver, who was a sergeant-major in the Great War, but is now a missionary in Western Canada, did not bother about himself and did not even trouble to look for a lifebelt.

Instead, he set about doing all he could to help those around him, and his crowning act was to rescue a 10-year-old boy by lowering himself into a lifeboat with the child in his arms while holding to the rope himself mainly by his teeth. When Mr. Bowen arrived back home in Vancouver he found that the tale of his heroism had been told by other survivors of (he wreck, but it was very reluctantly that he (old the talc himsell.

“The youngster's father was looking after the mother, who is an invalid. Someone had to take him down, so J volunteered. I remembered reading about children using their teeth to come down, ropes, so I tried it. I picked up the child and down we went,”

Mr. Bowen rubbed his jaw, and then, as though to explain the deed, he said: “Well, I just happened to be an old soldier.”

Now to Vancouver iand to us) he just happens to be an old hero!