COOL AND CAPABLE

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4726, 24 January 1946, Page 4

COOL AND CAPABLE

SEVEN-YEAK-OLD BOY „ LONDON. Seven-year-old Valentine Thynne, son of Viscount and Viscountess Weymouth, rescued their housekeeper from the 15ft-deep lake at their home, Stafford Mead, near Warminister. Mrs Sims, the housekeeper, -who is 54, went with Valentine, tall, but slight, to take out a punt on the lake. The boy had got into the boat, and Mrs Sims was following, when she fell into the water. She had sunk twice before Valentine who steadied the punt with one hand and grabbed Mrs Sims by the frock with the other, drew her to the side of the punt.

"I must have lost conciousness,” Mrs Sims said a little later, “because after falling and sinking the first thing I remember was Valentine putting my hands on the edge of the punt and telling me to hold on 'like grim death.’ I did, too.

“Then he paddled the punt to the landing stage somehow. It must have been difficult with my weight—l am —dragging on the side. "He hadn’t the strength to pull me out of the water, but while I held on to the landing stage he ran to the house, brought down two people, and they got me out. “There’s isn’t the least doubt that 1 owe my life to Valentine.”

Mrs Sims was exhausted and only semi-conscious when taken from the water, and she had to be treated by a doctor.

Valentine’s comment was: “Had to do it. No one else'near. Sorry I could not just manage to lift Mrs Sims out of the lake.”