Sea and the ‘quiet hero’ who rescued him
Eddie and Peter’s emotional reunion – and how we covered the initial story. two grandchildren and worked as a civil engineer in Canada – turned to divine intervention after becoming trapped on the sandbanks while out collecting shells with two pals, Alec Farrow, who was five, and Ernest Simpson, seven.
At the time we wrote how the trio had got trapped out at sea when they “didn’t notice a deep channel behind them”.
Our reporter wrote: “When they tried to get back, they found the water too deep.
“They screamed and shouted for help. Then Peter said, ‘Let’s close our eyes and pray’ before hero Eddie appeared.”
Our dispatch added that Eddie heard the “cries” and took off his “shoes and stockings and waded waist- deep” and “led them to safety”.
Speaking last night, Eddie, a former JCB digger driver who still lives in Tayport and is recovering from a stroke he suffered last May, joked: “It was more shoulder-height and I couldn’t swim!”
But when it was originally reported, Eddie and his family made no mention of what made the rescue all the more remarkable.
Tayport’s shore had previously claimed his elder brother, deeply scarring a young Eddie.
James Manzie, 14, was killed in February, 1942 when he strayed into a “no- go” area on Tayport’s beach and was blown up after stepping on a landmine, put there to protect the Fife town from i nvading Germans.
Eddie was just seven at the time of the family heartbreak.
Despite this horror permanently etched at the back of his Catherine
mind, Eddie didn’t flinch from Jaraszkiewicz.
jumping into the freezing Firth of Tay to rescue the schoolboys eight years later.
Eddie said it was a different era that allowed young children out as darkness approached on a cold winters’ night.
Eddie said: “I was out walking my dog when I heard the cries. It was getting quite dark and around tea-time.
“I knew the water quite well and knew where it was deep.
“They had been trying to swim back on their own but couldn’t reach shore so returned to the safety of the sandbanks but the tide was coming in.
“If I hadn’t heard them they would have drowned. I jumped in and made my way to them but had to carry each of the boys back to safety individually.
“One of the boys was so exhausted I had to carry him all the way home!”
Last year, some of Peter’s family got in touch with Eddie to see if he would mind meeting up again after all these years.
Modest Eddie added: “It was good to see him after all these years and know I made a difference. I never really talked about it afterwards. Anyone would have done the same.”
Catherine Jaraszkiewicz, Peter’s distant cousin who helped arrange the meeting, said: “Peter was deeply grateful for his time with Tayport’s quiet hero.”