Star of Courage

• Awarded on: August 24, 1972
• Invested on: June 08, 1973

Richard Balfour Swanson, S.C.
Star of Courage

While driving across the Twigg Island Bridge at Richmond, British Columbia, in the late afternoon of October 5, 1968, Richard Swanson of Vancouver saw a small truck swerve across the lane of approaching traffic, break through the guardrail and plunge into the Fraser River. Stopping his car he ran to the break in the railing and saw two people floating near the half submerged truck. An elderly woman, who had been a passenger in the truck, shouted that she could not swim. Mr. Swanson removed his coat and shoes and leaped off the bridge into the water twenty feet below. He swam to the victim, held her up and towed her to a log boom some 100 feet distant, from which both were assisted ashore. Unfortunately, the other occupant of the truck drowned.