HERO'S NOBLE DEED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15056, 27 July 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

HERO'S NOBLE DEED.

WELSH COAST TRAGEDY.

I can't swim, but God help him if I cannot reach him !

With these words a brave man named Alfred Hopkins plunged into the sea at Sully, near Barry Dock, to the rescue of a drowning boy, but both were swept away by the tide, and two more Uvea were added to the toll of the deep.

The sad story was told at tho inquest at Barry. The child victim* John Henry Trott, while playing with a toy boat by the sea, waded out of his depth and was carried away by tho tide. Hopkins, a man- of 30. ran over the rocks, and, seeing the little fellow floating out to sea, uttered the brave words quoted above to a little girl who stood by. How true were his words was seen only too soon. He seemed in difficulties almost immediately he entered the water, but made desperate efforts to reach the drifting lad. But, feeling himself sinking, he tried to turn -back. But the tide had caught and gradually took him further and further out.

Other lads who were with the boy Trott at the time had raised an alarm, and men, and even a woman, who was pulled back by others, attempted to rescue the drowning pair. Hopkins disappeared first, but the boy continued to float some distance from the shore.

' A boat was launched and Trott's body recovered, but it was not until late in the evening that his would-bo rescuer's body was found, the tide then washing it up against some rocks. In recording a verdict of "Accidental death," the coroner and jury paid a high tribute to the bravery of Hopkins. Ho had lost his life in trying to save another, and, seeing that he could not swim, his action, was all the more commendable.

The coroner said that Hopkins' family could bo consoled by the fact that lie had died a hero's death.