BB Gazette Vol.52 No.1 – The Boys’ Brigade Cross for Heroism has been awarded to Sergeant Daniel Berry, aged 17, of the 59th Edinburgh (Musselburgh) Company for rescuing two children from drowning in the River Esk at Musselburgh on May 19th, 1943.

This action was doubly meritorious, for by it two lives were saved in circumstances which redounded highly to the gallant Sergeant’s credit. Berry lived on the river-side, about half a mile from where the Esk flows into the sea. After running under the bridge the river forms an ugly eddy of whirling waters made more uninviting still by the chemical discharge of caustic soda from a neighbouring mill. From his window Berry saw two small children playing on the shore. As they played the sandy bank gave way, precipitating one of them into the stream ; the other, in its childish efforts at rescue, fell in, too, and the pair of them, turning over and over, were quickly swept into the dangerous waters.

Meantime Berry was dashing to the scene. Without a pause he plunged in, making for a small islet by which he saw a struggling child. Swans nesting there strongly resented his intrusion and threatened attack. He seized the smaller child and safely got him to the bank, only to hear that the sister, a year older, also was under the water. Back he plunged, diving to search, succeeding in gripping the child and bringing her to safety, thus rounding off a good afternoon’s work which richly deserved the recognition which has been accorded to it.