ALBERT MEDAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4551, 16 April 1923, Page 3

ALBERT MEDAL.

NEW ZEALANDER’S GALLANTRY. It is announced in the London “Gazette” that the King has been pleased to award the Albert Medal to Mr. Charles Chapman, of Huarau, New Zealand in recognition ot his gallantry in saving life. In the early hours of March 27th, 1920, great destruction was caused , by a severe flood which swept through the Paparoa Valley. An immense volume of water descended from the* upper valley, where for miles the course of the torrent was marked by landslides. Houses and huts were washed away, and, unhappily, some of the. occupants lost their lives.

Chapman, on receiving news of the disaster, put on a bathing costume and at once set out for the Paparoa township, to find that the river which runs thiough the township had become a raging torrent, the water reaching almost to the top rail of the bridge spanning the river. Two men (one of whom could not swim)were clinging to timber in the middle of the river, while a crowd of terror-stricken people looked on helplessly from the bank Chapman’s first act was to rescue these inen. This he did —twice swimming out to them—but only after very strenuous efforts. He then heard that a woman and her child were in danger higher up the river, and went to their assistance He found the woman clinging to a tree and swam out to her; but to effect a rescue he had to return for a plank. A wooden form was available, and this he endeavored to tow out to the woman and child. The rope broke, but his second effort, when a length of fencing wire had been procured, was successful, and he brought first the child and then the mother to the bank.