Medal of Bravery

• Awarded on: July 20, 1972
• Invested on: June 08, 1973

Ruth.McWilliams Hewitt, M.B.
Medal of Bravery

Ruth McWilliams Hewitt, then a 17-year-old high-school student, dove into the Pitt River to rescue a drowning five-year-old boy, then applied mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to bring him back to consciousness. On July 17, 1967, the five-year-old child, on holiday from Indiana with his parents, fell into the Pitt River near Haney, British Columbia. The child's father, a non-swimmer, began to search frantically for some kind of pole to reach out to the boy when Ms. McWilliams Hewitt, a holder of the Royal Life Saving Society's award of merit, came by on her way to a swimming class. Ms. McWilliams Hewitt jumped from her car, dove into the river and swam some 25 feet under water without being able to see anything because of the muddiness of the river at that point. She came upon the boy, brought him to the surface but he slipped from her grasp and sank below the surface. After diving three times, Ms. McWilliams Hewitt managed again to locate the boy and got him up onto a float some distance downstream from the bridge. He was quite blue and not breathing. She began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but without any immediate success. She persisted and after a quarter of an hour the boy regained consciousness. Ms. McWilliams Hewitt, subsequently was a recipient of the Award of Valour by the Girl Guides of Canada.