South Yorkshire Times, October 3rd, 1942
Boxer to the Rescue
Child Saved from the Canal at Wombwell
Mr. Edward (“Ted”) Jones, ripper at Houghton Main, a well-known light-weight boxer, of 25, George Street, Low Valley, was the hero of a gallant rescue from drowning in the canal at Mitchell Main on Sunday afternoon Jones saved the life of Howard Coldwell, (5), son of Herbert Victor Coldwell, coal cutter, 76, Mitchel Main, Pit-yard.
With his seven years old brother, Grenville Howard was trying to reach a stick in the canal when he overbalanced and fell into deep water. Children on the bridge gave the alarm and Jones, who was visiting friends a short distance away, ran to the spot, vaulted an eight feet high wall and dived into the canal fully clothed. At first he saw the child’s fingers above water but lost him again ad had to dive several times. At last he got the child to the side, where he brought him round by artificial respiration, another man assisting him.
Jones said the lad had gone down three times and was black in the face when he got him out. “I thought he was a goner,” he said. Mrs. Coldwell watched the rescue from the bank. She says her boy would certainly have lost his life but for Jones’s promptness and gallantry. Jones had done a lot of boxing for charity. He is a married man with two children.