Our holiday hero

A Glossop man was hailed a hero after rescuing a teenage girl when a huge wave swept her off her feet.

But Philip Birt modestly walked away without giving his name, leaving residents of a south coast resort town wondering who the mysterious lifesaver was.

Philip, 22, was even reluctant to tell his parents, who ran the Bulls Head in Old Glossop, when he returned home from his holiday in Littlehampton.

The Chronicle, however, managed to track him down, but he still insisted he had done nothing heroic.

Coaxing the story from him, it seems that Philip had been on a wakes week holiday in July 1950 with his fiancée and saw the drama unfold.

Two-17-year-old girls, both non-swimmers, had waded waist-deep into the sea, a wave sweeping them off their feet, the strong tide carrying the girls away, who were on holiday from London, into the River Arun.

They were swept upstream, where Philip, seeing what had happened, dived fully clothed into the water and swam strongly to them.

He managed to hold onto one girl until a speedboat arrived, and they were hauled on board; the other girl was saved by the crew on a second boat.

Both girls were given artificial respiration and happily survived the incident to carry on with their holiday.

The dramatic rescue made the resort’s local newspaper.

A holidaymaker who saw the rescue, said: “She had a narrow escape, the man who rescued her is beyond praise.”

Another man said: “The rescuer was very nearly all in, he did a very plucky and brave thing, the river was flowing strongly.”

Philip meanwhile decided the best thing to do was dry off, before going to a tailor’s shop and purchasing a new set of clothes.

And nobody in Littlehampton ever found out his name.