Honour for rescue heroes

Mr Barton, 31, from Uckfield, raced into the sea to help a boy, aged about 10, who was screaming for help. To his horror, he found a lifeless body floating beneath the youngster.

He dived under the water, pulled up the body and, as the boy grabbed him, yelled for help until someone else came and took the lad back to the beach. Mr Barton was thrown a lifeline as currents tried to pull him out to sea.

Once back on the beach the boy disappeared into the crowd while Mr Barton put into practise life-saving skills learned many years ago. He placed the woman he had pulled from the water into the recovery position and immediately she started coughing.

'I was just trying to remember how to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but it wasn't necessary. I am so pleased there was a happy ending,' said Mr Barton, of Clematis Cottage, Ringles Cross.

Wife Melanie said she had been terrified throughout. There was nothing she could do because she had to stay with their children, Jasmine, six, and Luke, four. 'We had only just got down on the beach when we saw some people panicking out in the water. Andrew's reaction was just to take his shoes and T-shirt off and go running over the pebbles,' said Mrs Barton.

'I just looked at him wondering what on earth was going on then I realised he was saying he needed an ambulance. He was as white as a ghost and I shouted up the beach for someone to call an ambulance.'

A few weeks later Mr Barton received a letter from the woman he rescued. Mrs Elisabeth Watson, 70, of Downs Valley Road, Lower Willingdon, is also to receive an award from the Royal Humane Society because her near drowning resulted from her efforts to help the boy.

He had called her as the tide pulled him out to sea but in his panic he held her under the water and if it had not been for Mr Barton she would have died.

'Two lives would definitely have been lost that day if it wasn't for Andrew being plucky enough to go in there,' said his father, Peter, who contacted the Royal Humane Society about the rescue.

'Also, Elisabeth Watson did a fantastic job, almost giving her life to save the boy. I thought they both deserved recognition for what they did,' said Mr Barton who, helped by his son, farms at North Chailey.

Mrs Watson said she would always be grateful to Andrew for rescuing her. 'The hard part about all this is that the boy just disappeared and we didn't know who he was or how he was,' she said.

She had been swimming when she saw the boy get into difficulty. 'I went after him and he grabbed me round my neck and I went under. He was holding me ever so tight and I tried to get him off.

'I can remember somebody pulled the boy off me and I heard somebody say, ''Relax I have got you now'' and I must have fainted, probably with relief.'