90-year-old’s search for young lad he rescued in the 1960s
Hero keen to know what happened to four-year-old saved from drowning
An elderly man is hoping to be re-united with a young boy he rescued from a river 55 years ago. In 1964 a young Harry Wooding was working at Leybourne ballast pit when he developed bronchitis and had to take some time off.
He was going for an afternoon stroll along the River Medway near Teston Bridge with his wife Ruth when they saw a group of people by the bank shouting ‘can anybody swim?’
It didn’t take long for him to realise there was a youngster in the water who was in trouble and very close to disappearing under some brambles.
Speaking at the time to what was the Kent Messenger Gazette - the forerunner to the Kent Messenger - the then 35-year-old from Chez Nous, Ham Hill in Snodland said: “Without stopping to think abut anything or take off my shoes I jumped in and went after the boy.
“I just managed to reach him as his head was going under again. “A young couple took him from me as I regained the bank and I dashed off home to get out of my wet clothes.”
At their home, now in Gavin Astor House, Aylesford, Mrs Wooding said: “I just couldn’t stop him, he just held the boy up by one arm and nobody would take him off of him.
“He didn’t get him out very gracefully, he looked a right sight let me tell you” she laughed. “He went under the bushes and Harry came out covered in blood. If the boy had gone under again he would have gone under the weeds and Harry wouldn’t have found him.
“I was very proud of him but thought he was silly jumping in like that.”
Mr Wooding stayed to watch the boy take a breath but it wasn’t until he saw the story in the paper that he found out his name was Marcus Wakelin.
The now 90-year-old said: “I don’t know what was going through my head,
“I decided to jump in because, as far as I remember, nobody else did.
“It messed my hair up and I wanted to get home because I was soaked and suffering from bronchitis.
“The family didn’t say much, they could have come and thanked me couldn’t they?
“He might not even be in the country anymore, it would be nice to see what he is up to and I’m always happy to shake somebody’s hand.”