ABOUT 5.30 on the afternoon of the 18th July, 1961, a girl who was swim- ming was seen to be in difficulties near the slipway which is used for launching the Appledore boarding boat. There was a slight, variable breeze and a calm sea. It was two hours after low water, and in the stream about fifty feet oft shore the tide was running at about three knots.

Richard Sidney Bowden, aged thir- teen, the nephew of the second cox- swain, was playing in a 9-feet dinghy with two children aged six and three.

He heard the girl's cries for help and saw that she was out of her depth and in difficulties on the edge of the main flood stream some thirty to forty feet off shore. He set off at once with the two small children still in the dinghy.

In about a minute the girl was carried into the full force of the flood stream and disappeared below the water.

Rowing strongly, Richard Bowden stemmed the tide and came down on the girl stern first. He told the two small children to sit still on the bottom boards and shouted to the girl to hang on to the transom and not attempt to board the dinghy because she might capsize it. With the girl hanging on he succeeded in bringing the dinghy back.

For this service an engraved wristlet watch has been awarded to Richard Bowden..