BLAZING COLLEGE

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19799, 1 February 1936, Page 14 (Supplement)

BLAZING COLLEGE

Thrilling Rescue By Fireman,

Three painters fighting desperately to save lives ... an admiral’s daughter and a nursemaid screaming for help from a roof . . . the admiral and his wife escaping down a flame-rid-den staircase. These were episodes in a fire drama at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. A tug was calmly cruising down the Thames when a look-out man saw flames coming from the college. Dashing away to Greenwich Pier, the alarm was given. But in the meantime a sentry at the college had sounded the bugle. Vice-Admiral R. M. Colvin, president of the college, was up in an instant; he awakened the rest of the household, and the fight to save lives had started. Ladder Rescues. While the fire, which started in a classroom adjoining the house of Vice-Admiral Colvin, swallowed up the staircases, and trapped the occupants, three painters had got their ladders to the roof. Here is the story of one of them, Mr Robert Sands:— “I was working with my mates, painting Greenwich Tunnel, when we were told the college was on fire, and we hurried there with ladders. “We found the instruction class a mass of flames. The heat was unbca able, and smoke poured out in g '.i, ''lids. “Just at the moment when we heard everyone in the house had got out safely we heard cries for help' from the roof. “Our ladders were put up, and we found the admiral's little -girl and the nursemaid there. “Peter McNeill and George Conway, two of my mates, and myself brought the little girl down. “By this time the fire brigade had arrived, and saved the nursemaid, who was taken to hospital.” It was a relay rescue. At intervals the three men stood on the ladders, and the admiral’s daughter was passed down from one to the other.

High tribute to the heroism of the painters was paid by Vice-Admiral Colvin, who told the “News of the World”:—“Plucky fellows they were. They did marvellous work before the brigade came. And after the rescue they went back to their jobs and went on working as though nothing had happened. “My daughter and the nurse, Miss Earle, had escaped to the roof, and they were on a coping at the back. “By the time my daughter Prudence had been taken to safety the firemen had arrived, and they brought down Miss Earle and two maids who were on an upper floor. “Two other maids who were on the first floor were able to walk out to safety. “My wife and I managed to get down the burning staircase, and I blistered my foot.” A Former Palace. A helper named William Maitland was treated for cut hands, and P.C. Jones was also taken to hospital with rib injuries. Annie Hicks, one of the maids rescued from the upper floor, recovered in hospital. In the fight to save the building 200 firemen were engaged, while college cadets, with their own fire appliances, also took part. Immediately the bugles had sounded, naval officers and cadets, numbering about 150, paraded with overcoats thrown over their night clothes. A roll-call was taken to make sure they were all out of the building. The college is an historic building. It was once a palace. Vice-Admiral Colvin became the president of the college in August, 1934. He served with the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland, and, from 1918 to 1919, was assistant director of the Plans Division of the Naval Staff. From 1922 until 1924 he was naval attache at Tokyo, and in 1930-33 served in the Home Fleet as Chief of Staff and Rear-Admiral in the Second Battle Squadron.