On this day in Oxfordshire

On 7 December 1918 little Mabel Sansom, 7, was playing on the river bank by Osney bridge when she tumbled into the water. She was instantly swept along by the current for a full 150 yards towards the Electrical Works. Gustav Baumann, 33, a chef at Buol’s restaurant, witnessed the scene and threw off his overcoat in order to jump into the water. His first two attempts were unsuccessful, but on his third attempt a lad on the bank threw him a buoy and he managed to bring the apparently lifeless body on to dry land. 

Residents rallied round to help and members of the St John’s Ambulance Brigade administered artificial respiration to which Mabel responded. Wrapped in warm blankets, Mabel was conveyed home to number 9 West Street, where the doctor expressed surprise at her speedy recovery. 

Mabel’s father Charles Sansom wrote to the Oxford Journal: “I should like to thank publicly through the medium of your paper the people who assisted most diligently to assist my little daughter Mabel who fell into the river on Saturday afternoon. I learn from witnesses that Mr Gustav Baumann of Irvin House, Gloucester Street, acted in a most heroic manner, entering the water three times in a very strong stream before he succeeded in rescuing her. Also Mr Chapell, a railway guard, who worked so hard to restore animation, and was most successful, as our little girl is no worse for her immersion.” Charles’s little girl lived until 1995.

Oxford police proposed Gustav Baumann for a gallantry award from the Royal Humane Society. One wonders whether they would have done so had they been aware of his true origins. His baptismal record shows Württemberg in Germany, but for perhaps obvious reasons he claimed to have been born in Zurich. He went on to become the proprietor of the Swiss Restaurant at 135 High Street.