John Chroston
Encyclopedia
John Chroston, a biology teacher at Falkirk High School
, Scotland
, was one of the few tourists present during the Indian Ocean earthquake able to recognise tsunami
warning signs and prompt a beach evacuation. (Another foreigner with the right knowledge was British school girl Tilly Smith
. Some villages in Indonesia
had local knowledge that alerted them.)
Chroston, then 48 years old, was holidaying at Kamala Bay, near Phuket
, Thailand
, with his daughter Rebecca and his wife Sandra Adams, a professor at Stirling University. He was swimming when the sea receded, and instantly recognised the early-warning sign for a tsunami. He ran up the beach, sounding the alarm, gathering up his wife and daughter.
With the assistance of a Thai doctor, Harpreet Grover, Chroston persuaded a hotel shuttle bus driver to turn his bus around and take passengers to high ground. The bus stopped to pick up a few Thai women and children on the way, and was at one point engulfed by the wave, but managed to pull through and reached high ground.
Falkirk High School
Founded in 1886, Falkirk High School had a strong tradition of academic, musical and sporting excellence.Until the era of comprehensive education it was one of the leading senior secondary schools in Scotland and every year pupils won major scholarships to Oxbridge and the ancient Scottish...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, was one of the few tourists present during the Indian Ocean earthquake able to recognise tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
warning signs and prompt a beach evacuation. (Another foreigner with the right knowledge was British school girl Tilly Smith
Tilly Smith
Tilly Smith is a British girl who, at the age of 10, was credited with saving nearly a hundred foreign tourists at Maikhao Beach in Thailand by warning beachgoers minutes before the arrival of the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake....
. Some villages in Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
had local knowledge that alerted them.)
Chroston, then 48 years old, was holidaying at Kamala Bay, near Phuket
Phuket Province
Phuket , formerly known as Thalang and, in Western sources, Junk Ceylon , is one of the southern provinces of Thailand...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, with his daughter Rebecca and his wife Sandra Adams, a professor at Stirling University. He was swimming when the sea receded, and instantly recognised the early-warning sign for a tsunami. He ran up the beach, sounding the alarm, gathering up his wife and daughter.
With the assistance of a Thai doctor, Harpreet Grover, Chroston persuaded a hotel shuttle bus driver to turn his bus around and take passengers to high ground. The bus stopped to pick up a few Thai women and children on the way, and was at one point engulfed by the wave, but managed to pull through and reached high ground.