HEROIC POLICEMAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21153, 9 April 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

HEROIC POLICEMAN.

LIFE RISKED AT FIRE. EFFORT TO SAVE CHILDREN. COMMENDATION AT INQUEST. A police constable's heroic attempt to save two children from burning to death was warmly praised by coroner and jury at an inquest at Camberwell, London, on February 29. The inquest was on Royston Becker, aged two, and his brother Joseph, aged six, who died as a result of a fire at their home at Brixton. Constable Harry Smith, who had one of his hands bandaged, said he had been in hospital for seven days with burns and was still an out-patient. In the early hours of February 11 he "was walking home when he was told about the fire. After running back to the station to give the alarm he went to the scene of the outbreak. " A woman was in the roadway shouting, 'Save the children!' "he said. I asked where they were. It was dangerous

to go in the front door, so I went down to the basement, and gained admittance by the door. " The middle of the ground floor was an inferno, and the passage and the staircase were alight. I saw a young man named Covill, who handed me a wet cloth." Constable Smith then told how, with the cloth tied over his nose arid mouth, he returned to the ground floor, entered the hall and ran upstairs. " I called into (ho room directly in front of me," he said. " I found no one in there, so I came out and crawled up several stairs and tried to enter a room directly over the ground floor bedroom. I was unable to do so owing to the heat. I then began to crawl towards the next room, searching for the children. " I began to feel my strength failing, and was unable to breathe. I started to retrace mv steps, and whether I fell down or crawled down the stairs I do not know. I next found myself in a heap in the hall. I got to the top of the basement stairs and then collapsed. The next thing I remember was lying hi the back garden being attended to by two police officers." The coroner, summing up, said : " The only bright spot in this matter is the story told of Constable Smith's desperate endeavour to try to get these children. " I think myself that it is a very fine story of an heroic attempt by a police officer to try to rescue two helpless little children at the risk of his own life. I hope it will be brought to the notice of the Commissioner of Police." The jury returned a verdict of " Accidental death " in each case, and said they endorsed the coroner s remarks regarding

Constable Smith. They thought that- the father should also bo commended for Lis efforts to save the children. The coroner instructed the senior police officer present to convey the commendation of Constable Smith to the Commissioner of Police.