Preece Family Tree

GIRL FRIGHTENS SHARK.

Man Friend Dies After Rescue.

Sydney, Wednesday.

Wonderful heroism was displayed by a twenty-year-old girl, Miss Lucy Donaldson, in beating away a shark which had attacked her man friend.

Miss Donaldson and her friend, Mr Arthur Lane, a prominent business man, were swimming off the beach at New castle, seventy-five miles north of Sydney. Mr Lane was about fifty yards away from her when she saw the shark attack him four times.

Miss Donaldson swam at once to Mr Lane's assistance, and by vigorous splashing and beating the water frightened the shark away. Mr Lane was shockingly mutilated, but she succeeded in towing him to the beach, where he died. - British United Press.

An Australian Tragedy

Henry Lane was a prosperous trap-maker with a small factory in Wednesfield. He sent his son Arthur, a nephew of the Parkhouses, to manage a factory in Australia. Early in 1928, while sea-bathing with some friends, Arthur was attacked by a shark, which took his leg in its jaws. Bravely Arthur's girlfriend fought it off three times; finally, however, the boy lost his leg and died in her arms on the beach. He was 25 years of age.

When the Wednesfield Group of Toc H was advanced to the status of a Branch in 1928, it was granted custody of a Lamp, and this was presented in Arthur Lane's memory. Also in his memory, a credence table was presented to St Thomas's in 1929, the same year in which our present altar was given by the Parkhouses in memory of their parents. The original main altar was moved to the Lady Chapel and is one of the oldest objects we possess. It was used in the first church of 1750.