Hero boy, 10, drowned in icy lake now his family have one urgent plea
The family of a boy who died trying to save other lads from a frozen lake has warned of the dangers of playing on ice.
Jack Johnson, 10, drowned along with Samuel Butler, six, and Sam’s brother Finlay, eight, and cousin Thomas Stewart, 11. Speaking for the first time a year on from the tragedy, Jack’s grandad Steve called for schools to teach kids about the dangers of playing on and in lakes to prevent further deaths.
The 66-year-old, a park safety inspector, said: “Schools should show kids a video of what can happen, tell about the dangers of frozen lakes and normal lakes. Kids need to know about the dangers under the water.
Jack fell into a frozen lake in Solihull
People laying flowers and tributes at the scene in Babbs Mill, Kingshurst, Solihull (Darren Quinton/Birmingham Live)“If you get your leg wrapped around weeds or a rock, you’re not pulling yourself out.” Steve said Jack was on the ice on Babbs Mill Lake in Solihull, West Mids, with pals when the other boys, who he did not know, got into trouble.
He said: “One of them went through. We were told Jack went to try to give him a hand. The ice wasn’t thick enough, so as soon as he put a bit more weight on it, he went through.
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Brothers Finlay and Samuel Butler, and their cousin Thomas Stewart (left to right)“There was a current that day so they would have gone past the hole within seconds.” Steve rushed to the lake to find son Kirk – Jack’s dad – with police, freezing after diving in after his boy. He said: “We saw them pulling the children out. We’re not soldiers, so we’re not used to seeing things like that.”
Steve, who carried Jack’s photo in his work van to help him get “through the days” after the tragedy, said he is still plagued by nightmares.
He said: “I’ll see a frozen lake with a hole in the middle. I can’t get the picture out of my head.”
Police breaking the ice on the lake at Babbs Mill Park in Kingshurst while searching for the four children (PA)Steve says life was a “blur” after Jack’s death and he smashed apart the old bar in his garden, which his grandson used to play in, as it was a painful reminder of him. But he has now built a new bar, naming it “Jack’s bar” in his honour.
On the tragedy’s anniversary on Monday, the family released balloons at Jack’s grave. Steve said: “He’ll never be forgotten.”
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