GAVE HIS LIFE

Northern Advocate, 31 December 1934, Page 8

GAVE HIS LIFE

TO SAVE HIS FAMILY. STOOD UNDER WATER. How Police Sergeant Harold Glasby sacrificed his life to save his wife and children, after a boat accident in Dan- , son Park Lake was told at a recent • inquest at Bexley Heath. • -• Glasby, who was an ex-Lifeguards-man, was with his wife and two boys, hged ,7 and 5. in a rowing boat, when ' one boy fell into the water. His father, ' in diving after him, upset the boat. Arthur Hughes dashed from the ..landing stage to the rescue in a skiff. T-He saw two hands come up, grabbed •them and got a boy into his boat. Two ’hands, came up and he pulled a second .boy to safety. Then a woman .‘.appeared, and Hughes held her until J i‘a«motor launch arrived, and she, too, , was saved.

Hughes and the men in the launch ■/had no idea that a 6ft. man had been standing in water 7ft. deep and holding ! .l up his wife and i boys'till help came, ' but Mrs Glasby’s evidence showed that - this was-'so.

“My husband stood on the bottom.” she told the coroner. “I knew that as /; I went down:. He held the boys and • , then’he held me. The water was over his head, but he had his arms round me. and round the boys, too.” The story of heroism was confirmed ■* by Dr. W. A. Hogerson, who said that on examining the body he missed 1 some . of the usual signs of drowning and made a post-mortem. He found that death was due to asphyxia by drown- ■ ing aggravated by exhaustion. The ' r ■ air passages were free from mud and i:‘;l weeds, X He came to the conclusion that the •; ■ effort of supporting his children and : wife exhausted the man, and when he / ‘ went down he could not come up again. . r A . verdict of “death from asphyxia • by drowning following exhaustion” was returned.