Medal of Bravery
Awarded on: 1972-07-20
Invested on: 1973-06-08
Stanley V. Loutit, M.B.
Medal of Bravery
Stanley Loutit, aged 51 at that time, employed by the federal Department of Public Works as a canal man at Lockport, Manitoba, rescued the occupants of a boat which capsized in the flood waters of the Red River below the St. Andrew's dam on June 19, 1966. At a time when the Red River was in full flood, a small boat carrying two men and a woman was swept over the St. Andrew's dam at Lockport. Mr. Loutit, a canal man at Lockport and an experienced boatman, had seen the trouble developing and set out in his own boat for the foot of the dam. When he arrived, he found the other craft capsized and lodged against the base of the dam by the backwash. Mr. Loutit attempted to get close to the overturned craft and found that it required almost all his energy and skill just to maintain his own boat in an attitude that would keep it from overturning. Nevertheless, he pressed forward his rescue attempt and found just enough margin to pick up one person at a time. He succeeded in rescuing the two men but the woman who was trapped beneath the overturned boat perished.