b. ? d. 26/11/1974 Cape Town, South Africa.
DATE OF AM ACTION: 28/12/1927 Mossel Bay, South Africa.
Mr A. Muller Heyns was presented with three decorations for bravery: He was awarded the silver medal of the Royal Humane Society, the (gold) Stanhope Medal awarded for the bravest deed of the year, and the (bronze) Albert Medal.
AM CITATION:
On the 28th December, 1927, at Little Brak Beach, Mossel Bay, South Africa, a youth named Ockardus Johannes Heyns; aged 17, was bathing with a party of friends when suddenly he was attacked by a man-eating shark, which carried him some distance out to sea and bit off his left leg above the knee. With the full realisation of the danger he was incurring one of the bathers, Andries Muller Heyns, an uncle of Ockardus Heyns, immediately went out to the assistance of his nephew. The shark, meanwhile, had returned to the attack and had gripped Ockardus Heyns by the right foot and ankle. Andries Heyns got hold of his nephew and tried to free him from the shark; nevertheless the foot and ankle of Ockardus Heyns .were severely crushed. Andries Heyns succeeded in reaching the shore with his nephew, who soon became unconscious and died some hours later in Mossel Bay Hospital.
BURIAL LOCATION: ENGLISH CHURCH CEMETERY, CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.
