BRAVERY RECOGNISED

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 78, Issue 7017, 9 February 1949, Page 7

BRAVERY RECOGNISED

TWO HAMILTON CONSTABLES HONOURED AWARDS BY ROYAL HUMANE SOCIETY The Royal Humane Society of New Zealand has issued letters of commendation to John Thomas Beasley and John Lopdell of Hamilton. The citation covering the awards reads as follows: At 11.50 a.m. on 27th August, 1948, Constables Beasley and Lopdell jumped into the Waikato River to assist a woman who was mentally defective and who had jumped into the river. The person rescued was a strong heavy woman weighing fourteen stone and struggled violently in the water, which was up to the armpits of Beasley and Lopdell. The bank of the river at the place of the rescue was a straight face of 23 feet and with nothing to hold on to, Beasley and Lopdell had considerably difficulty in keeping in the shallower water with their heads and shoulders above water and not being carried away with the current. After 15 minutes struggling in the river the constables who were becoming exhausted, were assisted by a lady who had witnessed the incident and who procured a rope which she threw to them. With the aid of further police who had arrived, the'three people were pulled from the river.