John Chroston

John Chroston of Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire, a biology teacher at Falkirk High School, Scotland, was one of the few tourists present during the Indian Ocean earthquake able to recognize tsunami warning signs and prompt a beach evacuation.

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 taking photographs on the beach when the sea receded, and instantly recognized the early-warning sign for a tsunami. He ran up the beach, sounding the alarm and gathering up his wife and daughter.