Press Release immediate - Two Beds, Herts and Cambs Land Rover club members saved from drowning in France.

You never know how good the people around you are till something goes wrong, as BHCLRC members Bryan and Graeme discovered on the club's winter trip to the Massiff Central region of France.

One of those simple mistakes that we could all make, a potentially disastrous wrong turn while crossing a fast flowing river resulted in their Land Rover being instantly swept away.

The situation was dire, it was March, the river was in full flood with freezing melt water off of the mountains, it appeared that the vehicle and more importantly its occupants could be lost forever.

The day was saved by the quick thinking and leadership of two club members, namely Pete Newman and Mike Philpot. Pete runs a quarry and Mike is a serving USAF officer, so both are used to having to think on their feet and manage difficult and dangerous situations. Their skills withstanding both put their lives on the line rescuing Bryan and Graeme and also recovering their vehicle. (Which has been renamed 'Bob' after the manner it went down the river) The rescue took a total of 5 hours to complete, with both our heroes spending far too much time in the freezing water.

As recognition of their bravery and leadership Mike and Pete have been the first recipients of BHCLRC bravery awards and have both received honorary life membership to the club.

Find BHCLRC chairman Gary Culpan's award speech copied below, and pictures attached.

To find out more about BHCLRC visit www.bhclrc.co.uk

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a club as, and I quote " Combine together with for joint action",

In rescuing Bryan, Graeme and their vehicle from the river in France, Peter Newman and Michael Philpot did exactly that, they combined together and acted jointly, to help their two fellow members in the true spirit of the club.

To coin another popular phrase “when the going gets tough: Then the tough get going” a rather apt statement with regard to Pete and Mike during this incident. It is what a person does at the moment of his greatest challenge that shows him who he really is. This rescue showed the rest of us that these two are truly great men.

For those reasons, the club committee decided that these two gentlemen deserved some official recognition and thanks from the club as a whole for their quick thinking, courage and bravery and all this whilst placing themselves in danger of being swept away in a cold, fast flowing river to complete the rescue.

The committee therefore decided that In order to recognise the actions of these two club members tonight, that the committee and membership of BHCLRC, should present them both with Honorary Life Memberships of the club as a representation of our thanks and admiration for their heroic deeds on that day.

Although, it has to be said, that during our deliberations, we could not decide whether this award was primarily for the rescue of the two members concerned or for saving the rather valuable Land Rover Ninety, so in the end we plumped for both, but it was a close call.

So. On your behalf, I would like offer the club’s heartfelt thanks to Peter and Michael for their selfless actions that day and ask you to raise your glasses to Peter and Michael. It now gives me great pleasure to present their awards.

More photos & some video can be found in our gallery under France trip 2006