Ex SAR GM Winner To Carry Olympic Torch

[MightyGem]

Found this on Rotorheads, and thought that this deserved a separate thread to the Culdrose one.
Miracle of sea drama recalled as hero winchman returns for Olympic relay | This is Cornwall (http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Miracle-sea-drama-recalled-hero-winchman-returns/story-16052958-detail/story.html)

[Cornish Jack]

I started SAR training 18 months after this and it was still well talked of. The Nav/Winch Op was Jack Canham and I ended up at Thorney with him. He was close to retirement and was unexpectedly posted to the Far East (confrontation). He was pretty underwhelmed by the idea and applied to PVR. Ever helpful, the Lords and Masters accepted his PVR to take effect on his completion of the Far East tour. He was killed in a crash during that tour. Fate is a very odd mistress.

[Old-Duffer]

Jack Canham had been awarded a DFC in 1943, when a W/O navigator on 97 Sqn. It was he who wrote the recommendation for Smith's GM. Trevor Eggington was the pilot. Canham and his pilot - Sam Smith - were killed in Borneo, along with three SACs: Langley, Galbraith and Evans when the aircraft suffered a mechanical failure during a search for a missing Army Air Corps Scout aircraft. Canham and Smith were at the very end of their tours.

I always take the view that this rescue really put RAF SAR on the map as far as Joe Public was concerned. The aircraft didn't survive too long afterward and was written off in an accident.

O-D

[LeggyMountbatten]

Eric Smith's bravery is in "Angels without Wings" http://www.amazon.co.uk/ANGELS-WITHOUT-BORISSOW-MICHAEL-WHITTLE/dp/B000LQ89K6 which was required reading for me as a boy - I still have my copy. The BBC had awarded Eric Smith a GC in the clip I saw. I'm sure that he felt that he'd earned one in 1962...

It's Egginton (no third g). I know only because I had the honour, as a young teenager, to meet him a few times in the early 70s - LM-dad was with him at Boscombe Down in the 60s and then later at Westlands. Does he not still hold the rotary wing speed record in a Lynx?

[MightyGem]

Yes, he does.

[sycamore]

A little `thread-drift`,that I hope will not detract from the main thread about Eric`s bravery,but as Jack Canham has been mentioned,perhaps a little more about Jack. He was on 225 Sdn during Confrontation as one of 2 Navigators.Jack had the opportunity to fly whenever,but he only usually flew on sorties that `coincided with dates in the year that he had not got in his log-books`,or it was an SAR task,or a task that required the expertise of a Navigator/winching operator.He could `talk` you into ,and out of clearings that normally one would not venture for fear of clobbering the `tips`.
He also designed a `locking`device that could be used on `abseil tapes` ,so that one would be able to winch up a `survivor`,or a `Hereford hooligan` in a strop on the end of 200ft tapes ,as the WW only had a 60 ft cable.Nowadays this would/is known as` Personnel long-lining`, but in those days,it was a case of `needs-must`. Sadly ,the equipment ,(for mountaineers ,this is similar to an `Ascender/descender.) was put forward as a `Mod` and got as far as 224 Group,before it was rejected,and `not to be used`; obviously by some loony Engineering Staff Officer,probably from Changi,more concerned about keeping his tan nice in his tailored `budgie-smugglers` in front of the nurses at the Swimming Club...! and who did not understand that the rest of us were actually in an `undeclared war`.....(rant over..).Jack,as ever the `gentleman`,accepted the rebuttal,but we still used the kit....sssshhhh,don`t tell....
Sadly as O-D says, both Jack and Sam were killed within a couple of days of `going Home`.Jack came home,Sam and the Airmen are buried in Kranji...

[Ronnie69]

Eric Smith is my Dad and we were really proud of him this weekend and of course we are very proud of his place in SAR history. It's really nice to hear so many people who thought so highly of Jack Canham, I didn't know him but Dad always speaks very highly of him and also of Trevor Egginton and George Puddy too. They were all members of the Sqn that Dad has great respect for. I'll point Dad in the direction of this thread.

[Old-Duffer]

Ronnie69,

What your Dad and his crew did in 1962 was probably the single most important event in getting Search and Rescue into the public gaze and implanting the respect which most people have for the SAR provided by the RN, RAF and coastguard. In later years, I believe it played a part and encouraged the wider concept of the air ambulance service.

I help organise regular events and I have a folder which I use to keep the documents for the current bash. The folder cover features a monochrome photograph of your Dad dangling 'on the string' off Lands End - probably one of the finest 'action shots' of all time.

Old Duffer

[cornish-stormrider]

Firkin eck - thats some rescue, and the winch must have been pwerful to lift the winchman, the casualty and the great big brass balls that were attached to said winchman!

Can anyone hear the pre winch brief - righto buggins, we shall lower you into this boat that is lying on its side, getting smashed in, having water over the top of it and you get to go and recover survivors! Crack on!

I hate to say this - rather him than me, but still thats a proper big time rescue, Have a beer (metaphorically) on me!

[Willard Whyte]

Given that an American judge on some talent show or other is deemed suitable to carry the Olympic torch, one wonders exactly what sort of honour such an activity really amounts to.