Star of Courage

• Awarded on: July 26, 1982
• Invested on: October 06, 1982

Shortly after midnight on 24 March 1981 Roy Flake, even though in very poor health, climbed the stairs to an upper-floor apartment in the same building which was on fire. Thick black smoke filled the living-room. But the moment Mr. Flake heard the faint cries of a child inside the apartment, ignoring the obvious danger he crawled along the floor, found the eight-year-old boy and dragged him a distance of some four metres. When a man arrived on the scene with a flashlight, in spite of exhaustion, Mr. Flake followed the beam of light while with great difficulty he continued pulling the victim to safety. Without the courage and tenacity of this veteran of the Second World War, the young boy would surely have died.