AN unusual rescue carried out in a small plywood dinghy led to the rescue from drowning of an angler near Dunbar on 15th April, 1968. At 3.30 in the after- noon of that day, Miss H. Bibby, a gardener on the Earl of Haddington's estate at Tyninghame, heard a noise which she thought at first came from an animal in distress. She told the head gardener, Mr. John Stewart, the two of them listened carefully, and they decided a man was calling for help.

Mr. Stewart set off in a Land-Rover with his brother Walter and an apprentice gardener named Gordon Stewart, who was not related to the two brothers.

They drove for a mile through the woods on the estate till they reached a point where the way was blocked by trees. They then continued on foot towards the river.

It was a cold day, the sky was overcast, though visibility was good, and there was a light easterly wind. After searching they found a rod fisherman on top of a sandbank. He had water over his knees, and the tide was still making as it was more than an hour before high water. The time was then 3.45.

Mr. Gordon Stewart ran along the shore to fetch a boat while the other two men returned in the Land-Rover to inform the police and guide them to the scene.

USED JAR AS BAILER The boat which Mr. Gordon Stewart found was a plywood dinghy, 10 feet in length and 4 feet in the beam, which was in poor condition. He took a glass jar to use as a bailer, and with only one oar he poled the dinghy, which was filling steadily. After about half an hour he reached the fisherman, who by now had water up to his thighs. The man had no waders, was cold and exhausted and was supporting himself with his rod. With some difficulty he was dragged into the dinghy, which Mr. Gordon Stewart poled back to the shore.

A framed letter of thanks signed by the Chairman of the Insitution, Admiral Sir Wilfrid Woods, G.B.E., K.C.B., D.S.O., has been sent to Mr. Gordon Stewart, and other letters of thanks have also been sent to Mr. John Stewart and Miss Bibby..