Reis Leming

Career

On the night of 31 January 1953 the sea defences of Hunstanton, Norfolk, were overwhelmed by a storm surge, with up to 10 feet (30 m) of seawater flooding the low-lying South Beach area. Many United States. service families were quartered there, and Leming"s unit, the 67th Air Rescue Squadron, based at nearby Royal Air Force Sculthorpe, were mobilised to assistant Leming, a 22-year-old Airman 2nd Class serving as an Aerial Gunner, could not swim, but dressed in a survival suit and dragging an inflatable raft, waded through the flood waters in the darkness and rescued 27 people before collapsing from exhaustion and hypothermia.

Leming returned to the United States of America the year after the flood but the people of Hunstanton never forgot him and when he announced his engagement (to Mary Ramsay) the town insisted on hosting the wedding.

The ceremony was held on June 1953 and was attended by the mayor and other leading figures of the town whilst a large crowd gathered outside. At a time food was still rationed in England local ladies pooled their rations to bake Leming a huge wedding cake and the town presented him with a set of Doulton china.

Achievements

• In March 1953 Leming was awarded the Soldier"s Medal by the United States, and on 15 April 1953 was presented with the George Meda He and Staff Sergeant Freeman A. Kilpatrick, who rescued 18 people that night, were the first Americans to receive the medal in peacetime. Presenting the medal, Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, the Home Secretary, said: "I ask you always to think of this signal honour, which the Queen has conferred upon you, as the outward and visible sign of the gratitude of English men and women for all that you and your colleagues serving under the United States flag did for us when help was desperately needed to save lives from the dreadful forces of wind and water." The Queen, who did not present the medal personally as she was in mourning for Queen Mary at the time, thanked Leming at Sandringham House in 1993. On 22 September 1956 Leming was invited to christen the ship Mayflower II, a replica of the Pilgrim ship, that was built at Brixham, Devon. On 13 July 2012 Hunstanton Town Council approved a motion to name the footway through the Esplanade Gardens "Reis Leming Way".

Views

Quotations: "I ask you always to think of this signal honour, which the Queen has conferred upon you, as the outward and visible sign of the gratitude of English men and women for all that you and your colleagues serving under the United States flag did for us when help was desperately needed to save lives from the dreadful forces of wind and water." The Queen, who did not present the medal personally as she was in mourning for Queen Mary at the time, thanked Leming at Sandringham House in 1993. On 22 September 1956 Leming was invited to christen the ship Mayflower II, a replica of the Pilgrim ship, that was built at Brixham, Devon. On 13 July 2012 Hunstanton Town Council approved a motion to name the footway through the Esplanade Gardens "Reis Leming Way".