Star of Courage

• Awarded on: April 2, 1979
• Invested on: September 21, 1979

Acting Police Corporal John Douglas Archer, S.C.
Police Corporal Denis Lush, S.C.
Star of Courage

Police Cpl. Denis Lush (now Sgt.) and Acting Cpl. John Archer rescued a seventy-year-old woman from a fire at her home in Saanich on 9 April 1978. The policemen heard of the blaze on their radio, and at the scene Cpl. Lush entered the building on his hands and knees. Failing to find the woman, he was overcome by smoke and collapsed on the front lawn. Acting Cpl. Archer then felt his way inside the house and found the victim in the living-room. He seized her by the arm and pulled her out to the porch only moments before he too succumbed to the smoke. Shortly thereafter firemen arrived and administered oxygen to the men, but nothing could be done for the victim.