David Purley

David Purley was a hero you have probably never even heard of, but a hero he most certainly was. If you remember him at all, it will be for his one-man attempt to rescue his friend and fellow F1 driver, Roger Williamson, from a burning car during the 1973 Grand Prix of Holland.

Purley was driving a March 731G sponsored by Britain’s biggest refrigerator manufacturer Lec, a company owned by his father. He was dicing with Williamson when Roger’s March crashed, overturned and caught fire. David immediately stopped his car, ran to the burning March and tried to tip it back onto its wheels with his bare hands. Marshals with fire extinguishers and the crew of a nearby fire engine just looked on and, incredibly, the race was not stopped. Purley could see Williamson was alive and heard the stricken driver pleading to be freed, but David just could not right the car. The flames were minimal at first, but spread and intensified after a couple of minutes. With no thought for his own safety, David kept straining to lift the blazing car with his bare hands and screamed for help, but no-one came. In the end, he snatched an extinguisher from one of the idle marshals, but the fire had become too intense for it to have much effect. Purley said later that if he could have righted the car he could have gotten Williamson out, and the Briton would not have lost his life in such a horrific way. David was awarded the George Cross, one of Britain’s highest civilian awards for valor, in recognition of his selfless rescue attempt.