Last week, a 93-year-old war veteran lost his medals in the Thames -- but luckily, some scuba divers managed to retrieve them.
Last week, as 93-year-old World War II veteran Charles Brown was climbing on board a reunion boat trip with fellow veterans, he stumbled a little with his walker - and lost his most valuable possessions: two rows of medals he had won for his heroism during wartime.
Efforts to use magnets to pull the medals up to the River Thames’ surface were unsuccessful, and Brown began to lose hope. “I do get a bit emotional because these medals meant so much to me,” he told BBC News. “I wasn’t a celebrity, a pop singer or a cricketer, these medals were what I was proud of.”
But a group of scuba divers came to his rescue. On Saturday, nearly a week after Brown’s medals disappeared, divers from the nearby Teddington Royal National Lifeboat Institution began a fingertip search near the bridge where the medals had been lost. Though the divers thought the medals may have floated farther away, they figured they’d give it a shot. Luckily, it didn’t take long to find the medals, soaking wet, but no worse for the wear.<
Brown is thrilled to have his precious momentos returned to him. “I’m not going to be celebrating with cream cakes or anything like that,” he said. “Just having the medals back is enough for me.”