BB Gazette Vol.94 No.1 – The Cross for Heroism has been awarded to David Thompson (13) of the 1^st Donaghadee Company, whilst on holiday In Spain, with commendable presence of mind and great courage, carried out a life-saving rescue in hazardous sea conditions with complete disregard for his own safety.

Testimonial by Kevin Cullen – It gives me great pleasure to give you a detailed account of the incident in which I was saved from drowning while on holiday in Spain.

I was in my swimming gear walking along the beach which was crowded with people. I decided to go into the water to walk, I was in the water up to my knees when suddenly the sand left from under my feet, and I was swept out to sea in about one second. I was in about 20 feet of water, and 20 yards from the shore. Not being a very good swimmer, I could not turn around to come back in, and kept going out, at this time I started to shout for help, I must have been 50 yards from the beach.

I saw a swimmer coming towards me, with a rubber raft, it was David, he reached me, and helped me to grab the rubber raft, and then he turned it towards the shore. As the waves were high, the current so strong, and the tide going out, it was very difficult for David, at this stage we were in about 20 foot of water.

We started to come towards the beach with David paddling the raft and swimming, and me holding onto the raft. There were some rocks nearby and we arrived at them, in a few minutes a man standing there puled us ashore.

I would surely have drowned were it not for David. It is very difficult to put into words an incident like this, you would have to be involved to appreciate the effort David Thompson put into saving me from drowning.