A WOMAN who nearly drowned as a child in Oxford has told of her surprise when she discovered a newspaper report about herself more than 75 years later.

Grandmother-of-two Shirley Druce, nee Jarvey, says she has been wary of water all her life after she was rescued from Mesopotamia, the strip of land between two branches of the River Cherwell near the University Parks, aged three in May, 1940.

She had been left in the care of two evacuees who were staying with her aunt, Martha Scarrott, but fell off a bank into deep water while playing.

Mrs Druce said she spotted the article written about her at the time when it appeared in a copy of our sister paper The Oxford Times earlier this year.

The 78-year-old said: “I believe I was taken there by two evacuees of 11 or 12, while my mother was in town shopping. I was swishing a stick in the water and fell in, they tried to grab my dress but didn’t manage to.

“I think I went under twice and I seem to recall that a man leapt off a punt to help me.”

According to reports in the Oxford Mail at the time, a woman was also passing and she removed the little girls’ wet clothes, wrapped her in a coat and took her home.

A young Mrs Druce was reported to have said: “I flopped in and had a mouthful of water when a nice man got me out.”

As a young girl, Mrs Druce lived with her parents, Harry and Vi Jarvey, in Crotch Crescent, New Marston.

When her mother went shopping, she often left her daughter with her aunt, Martha Scarrott, at her home in Edgeway Road.

Mrs Druce, who now lives in Toot Baldon and has three sons, added: “I have always remembered it and whenever I went swimming, I kept at the shallow end and never jumped into pools.

“My neighbour spotted the piece in The Oxford Times and asked if it was me, she recognised me because of my unusual surname.

“I was very pleased because I had the original newspaper cutting before but it had disintegrated and I didn’t think my children or grandchildren would ever see it.”

The original article, published in the Oxford Mail said: “The parents would be glad if the people concerned would write to them so they can have the opportunity of thanking them personally.”

Sadly the rescuers never responded. Mrs Druce’s saviours are still unknown.