BB Gazette Vol.48 No.5 – The Boys’ Brigade Cross for Heroism has been awarded to Private Harry Faulkner, aged 13, of the 13th Leeds Company for saving a little girl from drowning at Retford, Notts, on the 4th of October, 1939. Faulkner, who was evacuated to Retford with his school, was playing near a canal lock when a child ran up to say that her sister had fallen in. No one else was near and Faulkner at once dived, fully clothed, into the lock. The water was 12 feet deep, and grasping the child Faulkner swam with her to the lock gate, where he managed to hang on with one hand while supporting her with the other. It was impossible to climb out, and the Boy could only hold on in the hope of help coming. After ten minutes assistance arrived, and both were pulled up to safety. The child was none the worse but Faulkner was in a state of collapse and required artificial respiration before he could be taken to his billet by ambulance. But for the timely arrival of help, this Boy would undoubtedly have lost his life.