![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0_JS365633891.jpg\")
Tony Lenaghan (right) and Neil McPhee at Glasgow City Chambers. <\/p>\nNeil McPhee was just 14 when he suffered an injury and drowned at Glasgow\u2019s Govan Baths on September 1, 1965.<\/p>\n
04:30, 12 Apr 2025Updated 13:12, 12 Apr 2025<\/p>\n
Tony Lenaghan (right) and Neil McPhee at Glasgow City Chambers. <\/p>\n
Two Scots have been reunited after 60 years after one brought the other back from the dead.<\/p>\n
Neil McPhee was just 14 when he suffered an injury and drowned at Glasgow\u2019s Govan Baths<\/a> on September 1, 1965.<\/p>\n With no lifeguards on hand, staff evacuated children<\/a> while Neil lay dead at the bottom of the pool.<\/p>\n But when 19-year-old Tony Lenaghan found out, he dived in to pull Neil out of the water and performed CPR for 10 minutes.<\/p>\n Last year, Neil, 74, tracked Tony, 79 down enabling him to receive his second Bravery medal at Glasgow\u2019s City Chambers yesterday after the first was stolen.<\/p>\n Tony, who enjoyed a career as a physiotherapist for football clubs <\/a>including Clydebank<\/a> and Tottenham Hotspur<\/a>, the latter under Ossie Ardiles, and also worked for Jock Stein<\/a> and Don Revie, said: \u201c60 years ago I saved a little boy\u2019s life. He drowned and I brought him back.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were hundreds of kids at Govan Baths that day and they didn\u2019t have properly trained health and safety.<\/p>\n \u201cAll they were interested in was clearing the pool.<\/p>\n \u201cI was getting ready when a woman ran past and said there\u2019s a wee dead boy in there. They had left him in the bottom of the pool at the deep end. I said, \u2018You\u2019ve got to get him out\u2019.<\/p>\n She said, \u2018It\u2019s ok, the ambulance is coming.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI went in and got him out. He wasn\u2019t breathing. He was blue.<\/p>\n \u201cI turned him upside down and started working away and gradually a pink spot appeared on his cheek that got bigger and bigger. It took five or ten minutes and I kept going until eventually he was sick as a dog and his colour changed.<\/p>\n \u201cI pumped at his heart and he started breathing. That was the last time I\u2019d seen him.\u201d<\/p>\n Late last year, Neil tracked Tony down.<\/p>\n Tony said: \u201cThat little boy contacted me. It was quite emotional.<\/p>\n \u201cHe told me he had a fantastic life and if it hadn\u2019t been for me that wouldn\u2019t have been possible. I burst into tears.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had become a successful businessman and contacted the City Chambers to get the new medal presented to me.<\/p>\n \u201cMy friends are all moved by the story.\u201d<\/p>\n Neil recalled: \u201cI\u2019d been at the swimming baths and a ring fell off my finger and I went down to the bottom to get it. Halfway, there I began to struggle.<\/p>\n \u201cI grabbed a friend\u2019s leg but he thought I was joking and kicked out, hitting me between the eyes. That was the last I remember.<\/p>\n \u201cApparently, all the kids had been running past Tony and he asked what was happening and he was told there was a boy in the water and the staff didn\u2019t want the kids to see him.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is when he pulled me out and did CPR and saved me. I woke up at the side of the pool as Tony was giving me CPR. \u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Neil added: \u201cI didn\u2019t know he had got a medal back then because a couple of weeks later my family had moved house.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the years I tried to find out who he was. Last year I found the original Daily Record article and I made contact with him and asked if he saved a boy from drowning in 1965. I told him I was that boy.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was when he told me about the Bravery award.<\/p>\n \u201cI contacted the Lord Provost to get him a replacement medal because the original had been stolen from Tony in a house-breaking in 1990.<\/p>\n \u201cShe kindly arranged the new medal. It\u2019s not a replica because the old Glasgow Corporation doesn\u2019t exist any more.\u201d<\/p>\n Neil, who made a full recovery, went on to enjoy a successful career, first at BT then as the director of a construction company. He is now retired. He also married. His wife passed away last year.<\/p>\n Neil said: \u201cEverything I\u2019ve done since the age of 14 is down to Tony.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2_JS365633923.jpg\")
Tony Lenaghan (right), and Neil McPhee at Glasgow City Chambers with Depute Lord Provost Christy Mearns.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1_JS365633742.jpg\")
Tony Lenaghan at Glasgow City Chambers. Tony receiving a new medal to replace the one stolen a long time ago, which he received in the 1960s for bringing back to life Neil Mcphee who was 14-years old and had drowned in Govan Baths. Tony was 19 at the time.<\/p>\n