West Sussex Gazette, Arundel, Sussex, ENGLAND. 14 Sept 1933
BOY’S EFFORT TO SAVE FRIEND
How a 15 years old boy tried to save his friend from drowning was told at the inquest on Saturday on Ernest Batey (15), a Barnardo boy, who was drowned at Aldwick on Thursday. the inquest was conducted by Mr J.W. Loader Cooper, Coroner for the Chichester district, at the Margaret Convalescence Home, Aldwick. Mr R.D. Bray represented Dr Barnardo’s Homes, and Mr P.T. Kirkpatrick, of the head office of the homes at Stepney causeway was also present. He stated that the boy was of a Newcastle family of six children who came to the homes in 1929 under a Magistrates custody order. Their parents were still living in 1930. Batey had been at the Margaret Home for about a week, and was employed as a paid kitchen boy. On Thursday at about 6.00 pm, he and Frank Basil McLean (15), a house boy at the home, were given leave to go and bathe. McLean had been taught to swim at a nautical school, and Batey said that he could swim. The boys found the tide was far out and they walked out until the water came just above their waists. McLean told the coroner: “I began to swim, leaving Batey behind me. I had gone about 20 strokes when I heard him call “Help!” I turned around and saw that he was still standing with the water only up to his armpits, and I went on again as I though he was only joking. He shouted “Help!” again, and I looked round and saw that he had gone under the water. I swam back and got him on his back with his head above water. I put my hands under his chin and began to swim him back to shore very slowly. Then he gave me a hard kick in the stomach, which made me feel really dizzy. I lost my wind, and had to let go of him. McLean said that after he was kicked he felt helpless. He was not in his depth and could only swim back to the beach, where he saw a man, and said to him, “Help! There’s a boy drowned out there.” The man said, “You’d better get dressed and tell the police.” But he made no effort to go into the water, although McLean thought the man could have walked out to where Batey was. McLean then told a party of ten who were near a hut when it happened. One of them went and telephoned to the home, but the others did nothing. The kitchen matron at the house described how McLean came back and rushed along the passage, calling out “Bateys been drowned!”. McLean was practically exhausted, and he was put to bed at once. A search was conducted by the police, but the body was not found until the next morning, when it was seen on the beach near Craigweil House by a bricklayer going to work. The coroner said that the evidence showed that the cause of death was drowning and that was accidental. It was obvious that the boy could not swim. The other boy, who had learnt to swim, tried to do his best and quite properly handled the boy who was apparently drowning. “When he did get to shore and recovered himself a little”, said the coroner, “I am sorry, and I am sure he is sorry, that he did not go back”. If he had told the man he saw that a boy was “drowning” and not “drowned”, the man might have done something. With regard to the other people he spoke to, the coroner said he was sorry to think that there were people who would not even take the trouble to go to the beach and see if anything could be done. No one was to blame, except the poor boy who said he could swim. To McLean, he said, “I think you did your level best”.
