BRAVEST DEED OF 1930

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3996, 21 April 1931, Page 2

BRAVEST DEED OF 1930

NAVAL OFFICER’S PLUNGE INTO DEADLY RIVER The Court of the Royal Humane Society decided at its annual meeting in London recently to award to Lieutenant Colin H. C. Singleton, 11.N,, the Stanhope gold medal, which is awarded annually for the greatest deed of gallantry during the year. Lieutenant Singleton spent twenty minutes in the Yangtse River, China, in an attempt to rescue Stoker O’Brien, who fell from a sampan when returning to H.M.S. Peterel at Hankow at 11 p.m. on August 13 last year. O’Brien was the only non-swimmer in the boat, a fact known to Lieutenant Singleton, who, without waiting to remove any clothing, leaped from the ship on to the sampan and dived after .the drowning stoker.

Lieutenant Singleton caught O’Brien , about 20yds astern of the Peterel, but ) the stoker was struggling so violently j that both sank, and the rescuer was I forced to relinquish his hold. He was,; unable to locate the sampan to pick him j up until a further search had been | made.