Cross of Valour

• Awarded on: April 25, 1983
• Invested on: June 24, 1983

On 26 September 1981, Cpl Robert Teather, a member of the Surrey Detachment Diving Team of the R.C.M.P., displayed conspicuous courage in rescuing two fishermen trapped in the overturned hull of a boat. In the dark hours of the morning the sixteen-metre Respond had collided with a freighter near the mouth of the Fraser River, in British Columbia and capsized with two crewmen stranded on board. Cpl Teather and a colleague arrived on the scene and an exploratory dive proved that only one could enter the hull at a time. Though inexperienced in this type of rescue, yet aware that the boat was sinking and that qualified help was miles away, Cpl Teather determined to go. Knowing that he had no back-up, unsure of the two seamen, he entered the companionway. With visibility inside limited to a few centimetres, he made his way into the engine-room. In an air pocket already fouled by diesel fumes he found the two men, one of them a non-swimmer and very frightened. After calming the latter and instructing him in the use of underwater breathing equipment, Cpl Teather took him on his back. Half-way to safety, the seaman panicked and knocked his rescuer's mask off in the struggle, but Cpl Teather managed to force the victim to the surface where the other diver took over. Cpl Teather then returned to the engine-room and repeated the process with the other survivor. Had Cpl Teather not undertaken this exhausting and perilous rescue, the two fishermen would almost certainly have drowned or succumbed to asphyxiation.