Mexborough & Swinton Times, January 2, 1909
Exciting Rescue.
Mexboro’ Girls’ Peril.
A Plucky Deed.
The perilous position of two Mexboro’ children at noon on Wednesday called forth a heroism of a fine order, and also produced not a little excitement.
Two girls, Lily Edwards, aged 12, of 41, Garden Street, and Lily Grocock, aged 12, of 47, Garden Street, were picking coke on the steep embankment which bounds the fair ground on the north side of the river.
Lily Grocock, who is slightly the elder of the two, was apparently startled by something, and losing her foothold, fell into the water. Without pausing to consider, her companion sprang in to save her, and landed herself in a worse plight than the other girl’s.
Attracted by the screams of the frightened children, a crowd soon rushed up, and among them, was a man named Wiliam Leach, a travelling showman in the employ of Mr. G. T. Tuby. Hastily divesting himself of his coat and vest, he swam from the south side of the canal to the relief of the girl Edwards, who was now in a very bad way. He was too late to catch her as she went down for the third time, but he went down after her, and seizing her by the hair, extricated her from the mud at the bottom.
As he had dived into the water, another man, a stoker on the Great Central Railway, had walked in. in the hope of being able to assist. He could swim, but indifferently, however, and by the time Leach had got Lily Edwards to the bank, the gallant stoker was helpless to save even himself. He had given up, in fact, and was drifting under.
Back came Leach, with an extra thickness of sodden trousers heavily “sagging” on him, and seizing the fireman swung him to one side and brought him safely in.
Meanwhile two more travelling showmen, George Sutton and John Joseph Shaw, had been able to bring in the other girl from the side. The Children were unconscious, with the shock of the immersion and the quantity of water they had taken in. Artificial respiration was tried and it was rewarded with success in about fifteen minutes.
The children were restored in a measure with a glass of brandy, and thereupon walked home without assistance.
Leach, to whom Lily Edwards owes her life was taken into the Montagu Hotel, where he was provided with warm clothing, and where, when a “Times” reporter called, he looked little the worse for his adventure. He was, however, some shillings the worse, for the silver which he had in his coat when he threw it aside had gone; probably had been jerked out of his pocket.
This is not the first rescue from drowning which Leach has effected. Six or seven people he has saved from a watery grave in the Trent, near Newark, where he has proved himself an expert swimmer upon many occasions. He has to his credit a half-mile championship, which he won at Knottingley.
He took the event very cheerily. The water at the point where he effected the rescue would be about ten feet deep, and the bed was very sticky and slimy.
“I was just saying to my friends that it was too cold to be out, and that I thought I would go and have a look at the ‘wagon-house’ (one of the show caravans) fire, when we heard the screams,” said Leach to a “Times” man. “I wish you’d say how kind Mr. Law has been.”
Both the girls who hail been in such grave peril, were naturally feeling very ill and the effect of the shock did not wear off for some considerable time, but next day they were little the worse for what was a very severe ducking.