Another Hero Dies…
Here’s another one who recently shuffled off this mortal coil. You want the definition of guts? I nominate the name “Arthur Bywater”. Here is why:
Arthur Bywater, GC
(Filed: 08/04/2005)
Arthur Bywater, who died on Tuesday aged 91, was the only civilian to be awarded the George Cross and the George Medal; he won the GC in 1944 for his outstanding heroism in removing anti-tank mine fuzes from a munitions factory in Lancashire after an explosion.On February 22 1944, in one of the buildings of the Royal Ordnance Factory at Kirby, in Lancashire, 19 operatives, most of them women, were at work on the last stage of filling anti-tank mine fuzes. Each operative was working on a tray of 25 fuzes, and in the building at the time there were some 12,000 stacked on portable tables, each holding 40 trays, or 1,000 fuzes.
At 8.30 am that morning, one fuze exploded, immediately detonating the whole tray. The girl working on that tray was killed outright and her body disintegrated; two girls standing behind her were partly shielded from the blast by her body, but both were seriously injured, one fatally. The factory was badly damaged: the roof was blown off, electric fittings were dangling precariously; and one of the walls was swaying in the breeze.
The superintendent arrived with Bywater, his factory development officer. It seemed quite likely that the damaged fuzes, and others which could be faulty, might cause an even larger explosion. The high wind at the time, or any vibration, could set off further detonations over an area of half a mile.
Bywater cleared the building so that the maintenance crew could shore up the walls. He then volunteered to take on the dangerous task of removing all the fuzes to a place of safety where they could be dealt with.
Read the entire story. Not only did he do it once, he did it again a few months later. I would have hated to be this guy’s insurance man at the time…
Hat-tip: Argghh!
