DOUBLE FATALITY

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12074, 27 February 1925, Page 7

DOUBLE FATALITY

DROWNED IN BATHS MAN’S VAIN ATTEMPT TO RESCUE LAD LV PERIL. RESUSCITATION FAILS. Per Press Association. DANNEVIRKE, February 26. A double drowning fatality occurred at the Dannevirke public baths this afternoon, the victims being a boy. about five and a half years of age, and an adult, aged about 32 years, a married man without a family. The latter, who was named Arthur Urquhart, was a returned soldier with one leg, and wag caretaker of the baths for the Dannevirke Swimming Club. He was a fair swimmer. While on his way to the baths early in the afternoon he met a lad named /Willie Montgomerie, whose parents are residing in Auckland, the boy having been on a visit to his grandfather, George L. Bartlett, a well-known hairdresser, RELUCTANTLY CONSENTS. The. boy was reluctantly given consent by the grandmother _to go with Urquhart, the latter promising to look after him and the hoy’s cousin, a girl of about seven years, who went with them. BOY OVERBALANCES. According to the latter, the boy was playing with a stick as a boat at the deep end when he overbalanced. The little girl rushed and told the caretaker, who at once dived in. What happened afterwards is largely a matter of conjecture. The girl went for help and then returned to the baths, where she saw the boy on top of the would-be rescuer. When a named named Albert Fisher arrived on the scene in response to a hasty summons the boy -was floating on the water and Urquhart was lying at the bottom of the baths near the deep end. The bodies were about five feet apart. Fisher pulled the boy out first, and then dived and brought the man’s body out. The latter was apparently then dead.

Attempts by civilians and a doctor to resuscitate the lad were continued for a long time but proved futile. The tragedy cast a gloom over the town and district as the grandparents of the child • are among Dannevirke’s oldest residents, while Urquhart was .also well known, and he gave his life in attempting to rescue a bright hoy, to whom he was affectionately attached.