A.M. London Gazette 13.9.1916 'Two Children, Doreen, aged 11, and Anthony, aged 8, left their homes at Cowichan Lake, Vancouver Island, for the purpose of catching their ponies and, when half a mile from home they were attacked by a large cougar. They were almost upon the animal before they saw it crouching in a path at a corner. The little girl was first attacked; the cougar sprang upon her, and she was knocked down with her face to the ground, the animal being on her back. The boy at once attacked the cougar with his fists and riding-bridle, and drove the animal off the girl; it then attacked him, and his companion, getting to her feet, came to the rescue, fighting with her clenched hands and bridle, and even putting her arm into the cougar's mouth, to try to prevent it from biting Anthony. She succeeded in getting it off the boy and it stood on its hind quarters and fought with her, but evidently it was disturbed by some sound, for presently it slunk away and ran under a log, where it was afterwards killed. The children, though both badly injured, were able to make their way home'.
Doreen Ashburnham-Ruffner, G.C., was the only daughter of a younger son of Sir Anchitel Ashburnham, 8th Baronet, of Broomham, Sussex, and was born at Ashburnham Hall, Sussex, in 1905. Shortly before the Great War her sportsman father Lawrence "Tufty" Ashburnham relocated his family to a 500 acre estate at Cowichan Lake, Vancouver Island, where he also provided a home for a recently widowed family friend Mrs. Farrer and her two children. Future sporting guests at the Ashburnham's lakeside home were to include Prince Arthur of Connaught, the Earl of Pembroke, and Lord and Lady Byng during his tenure as Governor-General.

On the morning of 23.9.1916, 11 year-old Doreen Ashburnham was walking along a woodland trail with eight year-old Anthony Farrer, intending to catch and saddle their ponies and go for a ride, when a partly blind and ravenous pale brown mountain lion, weighing 180lbs. and measuring 7 feet 9 inches in length, attacked the children. Some 70 years after the incident Doreen Ashburnham-Ruffner told an interested journalist, "The cougar sprang from about 35 feet and landed on my back, throwing me forward on to my face. He chewed on my shoulder and bit chunks off my butt. Tony attacked him with a bridle that he was carrying. They fought for 200 yards down the trail. The cougar scratched the skin off Tony's back and ripped the flesh off his scalp. His scalp was hanging off the back of his head by six hairs."

Swiftly recovering from the initial shock of the attack and with considerable presence of mind, Doreen dared not lash out with her bridle for fear of hitting Tony. Accordingly, she jumped on to the beast's back and began battering it around the head with her small fists. She jabbed her fingers into its eyes and then in utter desperation stuck her right arm in the cougar's mouth to prevent it from biting Tony, whereupon the beast's 'stilletto-sharp teeth skewered her right bicep'. The animal next reared on to its hind quarters, towering over the girl, but was mercifully distracted. Moments later it rushed into the undergrowth, leaving the children dazed and blood splattered on the trail. As they staggered home to raise the alarm, a storm was brewing on the lake and in due course Doreen's mother was compelled to take a rowing boat across the water and get help from a neighbour who was an ex-British Army Doctor. "Tufty" meantime attended to Tony, as Doreen Ashburnham-Ruffner recalled, 'I remember getting to the house and my father taking Tony's clothes off and throwing them on the bathroom floor and I can to this day see the blood running out of the bathroom'. Anthony needed 175 stitches to his head and a long period of hospitalisation, whilst Doreen was to suffer the effects of blood poisoning.

A neighbour subsequently tracked and killed the cougar which was duly stuffed and worked into a suitably fiendish attitude for the benefit of newsmen who were quick to recognise the universal appeal of the story. Among the many letters from well-wishers was one from former American President Teddy Roosevelt. Another, a philanthropic American millionaire, gave Doreen, Tony and his sister free tuition at his unique school for a year. The children's heroism was widely reported in wartime England, and it was thanks to a Mr. Chief Justice Hunter, who was staying at the lake at the time of the attack, that the saga of childrens' bravery was laid before the appropriate authorities. In December 1917 the London Gazette announced the award of the Albert Medal to Doreen - the youngest ever female recipient - and to Anthony - the youngest ever recipient. The presentation was made at Victoria in 1917 on behalf of the King by the Governor-General of Canada, his Grace the Duke of Devonshire. Sadly, Anthony Farrer, having made a full recovery from his terrible injuries, was later killed in the Army whilst on manouevres with his Regiment, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infrantry, in Manitoba. Inexplicably he walked in front of a group of soldiers during rifle firing practice. He was 22 years old and had been married only a few months.

On leaving St. Margaret's School, Victoria, Doreen Ashburnham, A.M., came to England to do the season, being presented to George V and Queen Mary as one of the debutantes of 1925. She afterwards returned to California, where previously she had spent the winters with her family. Her love of horses resulted in her becoming a member of the first women's polo team in the United States. She later lived in Italy and bred horses which she rode in international competitions in England and Europe. In 1942 she married an American College Professor by the name of Ruffner and became an U.S. citizen.

In 1971 it was announced that all holders of the Albert Medal were to be invited to exchange their Decorations for the more recent civilian gallantry award of the George Cross. Doreen Ashburnham-Ruffner, however, did not know about this immediately and it was not until May 1974 that she received the G.C. at a ceremony at the British Consulate, and at the same time presented her Albert Medal to the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. Thereafter she became a regular attender at Victoria Cross and George Cross Association gatherings, meeting in 1986 both H.M. the Queen and H.M. the Queen Mother. In 1977 she was awarded the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal. A rather unusual acknowledgement of her heroism was made in 1975 when the Courage Brewery, in producing a new sign for one of their many pubs named after the Prince Consort, erected at the Albert Inn, at Street, Somerset, a handsome board depicting the snarling cougar pouncing on the two children, with a depiction of the A.M. inset at the top right corner. The pub sign was unveiled with due ceremony by Rear-Admiral R.W. Armitage, G.C., who himself won the Albert Medal for rescuing a Rating from a bilge compartment full of poisonous gas in the Battleship Warspite in 1928. Doreen Ashburnham-Ruffner, the youngest ever female recipient of a British gallantry award, died in California on 4.10.1996.