Rapid response MOTOR MECHANIC GRAHAM WALKER of Wells lifeboat station was on duty in the boathouse on the morning of Sunday June 29, 1986, when he noticed a man and young woman cut off by the flooding tide on Bob Halls Sands.

He informed the coastguard but was at the same time aware that the crew of a fishing boat was hailing them and trying to guide them to a place where they could be picked up. Unfortunately the man and the girl did not hear their shouts nor those of the lifeboat mechanic over the loud hailer and instead began to wade into the channel which separated them from the land.

They were now in immediate dangerand out of their depth. The girl began to scream; Graham Walker fired a maroon and, with the help of holiday makers, launched the station's 16ft D class inflatable lifeboat. He took with him one of the holidaymakers as crew and headed for the people in trouble, 100 yards away.

There was a moderate to fresh north easterly breeze blowing but this did not prevent a windsurfer, Mr Richard Varney, from paddling his board across the channel and reaching the man and girl even before the lifeboat. He managed to lift the girl on to the surfboard and to hold the man's head above water.

The lifeboat arrived very shortly afterwards and the man was taken on board. Graham Walker who could discern no heartbeat from him expelled a good deal of water then administered cardiac arrest massage and finally gave mouth to mouth resuscitation. Unfortunately, this was to no avail. The girl (the man's daughter) who was conscious, was also taken aboard the lifeboat which returned immediately to the lifeboathouse.

Here the man was given further emergency treatment but showed no sign of life and on the arrival of a doctor was found to be dead.

Following this service, letters signed by the chief of operations, Cdr Bruce Cairns, were sent to Motor Mechanic Graham Walker and to Mr Richard Varney, thanking them for their prompt action..