Jack Hewitt AM

b. 21/07/1900 Goole, Yorkshire.  d. 28/09/1971 Houghton-le-Spring, County Durham.

DATE OF AM ACTION: 11/05/1911 Goole, Yorkshire.

Jack Hewitt AM

Jack was the son of Mr and Mrs Hewitt of 28 Marshfield Avenue, Goole, and his father was a local councillor, and Secretary of the Goole Swimming Club. The hero, who was the son of Mr H. Hewitt, secretary of the Goole Swimming Club, had already won several awards for swimming, and he was able to swim a length of the Goole baths when seven years old. In 1910, under Mr J. Sales, superintendent of the Goole baths, he underwent a course of instruction in life saving, and the knowledge he thus gained has early stood him in good stead. Although he did not enter the final examination, his instructor stated he was fully proficient.

When spoken to, young Hewitt seemed unaware of having done anything out of the ordinary. He had come on the bank just after leaving school, having been sitting for an examination. When pulled out of the water he looked at his wet and muddy clothes and in all probability remembered the after effects of a previous ducking in the river, when he remarked, “Well, what’s a suit of clothes to a boy.” Describing his experience he said that he had jumped in, owing to his not diving very well. “I thought I was never coming up again.”

Jack received his AM from King George V at Buckingham Palace on 10th October 1911. He was also given the Bronze Medal by the Royal Humane Society and a silver watch by the Carnegie Hero Fund Trust. He later qualified as a BSc and worked for a local electricity company. He married Ada, and they had no children. He then became a mining lecturer in Sunderland. He died in 1971, just a month before it was announced all living AM recepients were eliigible for an exchange for a GC.

 

AM CITATION:

On the evening of May llth last a boy friend of Hewitt’s, named Drury, aged nine, was playing on the quay by the side of the River Ouse at Goole, when he overbalanced and fell into ten feet of water. As the river at that point is as broad as the Thames at London Bridge, and a strong tide was flowing, Drury, who could not swim, was in immediate danger of being swept away and drowned. Hewitt, a lad but one year older than his companion, without a moment’s hesitation, jumped into the river to his rescue, fully dressed, and, though both were carried out some yards by the tide, succeeded in seizing Drury, and after skilfully controlling his struggles and turning him over on his back, brought him in to the bank, where both were helped out.

 

BURIAL LOCATION: UNKNOWN.

LOCATION OF MEDAL: FAMILY HELD.

Acknowledgement:

Allan Stanistreet – Image of Jack Hewitt AM.