Harry Hartley... tragically drowned.

A rusting drinking fountain in Thornber Gardens, near Burnley Victoria Hospital, is the last reminder of a deed of tragic heroism more than 70 years ago. The fountain bears the inscription: "Erected by public subscription in honour of David Dixon, of Burnley Lane, who was drowned in trying to save the life of Harry Hartley in Pheasantford Reservoir, 1899." The Burnley Express of February 1st that year carried the sad story of the drowning, which had taken place four days previously. The reservoir had frozen over during a sudden cold snap. On the day of the accident it was thronged with an estimated 200 skaters. Harry, who was only 10, was skating away from the main body of revellers at a place where the ice was dangerously thin. Suddenly there was a loud crack. The skaters turned in horror to see young Harry struggling frantically in the cold waters of the reservoir. One young man, David Dixon, a 15 year-old weaver, raced to the spot and dived into the water, just in time to prevent the struggling youngster from disappearing below the surface.

Two men, John Moore and John Robertshaw, stripped off their jackets and tried to use them as a lifeline for the youngsters. But the ice cracked beneath their feet and they too fell into the water. Another bystander grabbed a rope and threw it to those in the water. But although Robertshaw managed to get to the rope his fingers had become too numbed to grip it firmly. Two other men linked arms and, using their jackets, managed to pull Robertshaw to safety. Another man got a plank and levered Moore from the water. But by this time the two youngsters had vanished. Their bodies were recovered later by police.

In its leader column, the Express echoed the suggestion of one of its correspondents that there should be a public subscription to buy a memorial to young Dixon's bravery. The resulting fountain isn't the only memorial to skating heroism in Burnley. A granite column at Burnley Cemetery records the courage of five Burnley men who died in an attempted skating rescue on Boxing Day, 1987, going to the rescue of two youngsters who got into difficulty in a flooded quarry near Park Lane when the ice gave way beneath them. The quotation on the column speaks for all such heroes: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."