iy Bice in IWescue kK fo Se
Sie eG) on Weel an ae

Constable B. R. Bertram led rugged search over hazardous trails to save
aviator and nurse in peril on isolated ridge after forced landing had cut them

off from civilization for five days.

Saving life of cameraman by Provincial Police Officer was but one incident

AMONG the multifarious duties
of the British Columbia Provincial
Police rescue operations play an im-
portant part and the rugged terrain
of Canada’s most westerly province
is a constant challenge to the skill,
courage and daring of a force of men
whose record for saving lives has
contributed epic chapters to the his-
tory of Canada.

Most recent and outstanding was
the rescue from their precarious posi-
tion on a ridge on Hozameen Moun-
tain of William Grant and Sheila
Cure, a nurse, after Grant’s aircraft
had iced up in a storm and he had
been forced to land with his woman
passenger.

Years ago death would have stared
the young couple in the face in spite
of the skilled manoeuvring which
brought them down uninjured.

Though escaping death which a
crash would have meant they would
have undoubtedly have died from
hunger and cold without being sight-
ed or heard from again.

For six days the whole continent
watched anxiously.

On the sixth day they were being
led back to safety by a party of res-
cuers led by Constable B. R. Bertram
of the Hope detachment of the B.C.
Provincial Police:

of British Columbia epic.

There is the customary matter-of-
fact record of the epic in the Provin-
cial Police files written in the usual
modest “‘all in the line of duty”’ style
that characterizes the reports of mem-
bers of the force but the newspapers
of May 2, 1949, to May 9, 1949,
ran pages of pictures and news and
found no adjectives too eulogistic to

—Vancouver Sun Photo.

The party crosses a treacherous slide of snow,
ice and tangled logs. The slide was about
700 yards long. Left to right: Sheila Cure,
E. McKean-Smith, Paul St. Pierre, Para-

trooper Cpl. Leo Binnett, Cyril Grant, Para-
troop Sgt. George Leckie, Paratrooper L.A.C.
Ted Braidner, Cst. Bertram, and Herb Larsen.

commend the part played by the Pro-
vincial Police in the rescue.

Constable Bertram had a word of
praise to offer too in a report which
modestly tells of his share in the
affair.

“The co-operation between the
American-Canadian ground forces
and the Canadian Para-Rescue Squad
was excellent throughout. Were it
not for that spirit of co-operation
and good fellowship, the task could
not have been carried through to such
a successful conclusion,” he wrote in
his report—‘‘Grant, William, and
Cure, Sheila: Rescue of.”

R.C.A.F. planes, helicopters and
paratroopers played their part in dis-
covering the stranded couple on the
mountain ridge but this by no means
dispelled the fear of tragedy.

Thousands of persons feared the
couple would never be found alive,
or, if found alive would not stand
the ordeal of being helped back to
civilization and tensely followed ev-
ery scrap of news from the time the
two were located about three miles
south of the American border on a
Hozameen Mountain ridge.

Cyril Grant, a brother of William
was waiting at Flood’s Airport for
transportation to Decco-Walton Log-
ging Camp on the Canadian-Ameri-
can border where a search party was

DAWSON, WADE & CO.

LIMITED

GENERAL

CONTRACTORS

e
775 Clark Drive

NINETEENTH EDITION

Vancouver, B.C.

Center & Hanna

Limited

Funeral Directors
(Established 1893)

1049 WEST GEORGIA ST., VANCOUVER, B.C.

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55 Years in British Columbia

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