A good Second World War B.E.M. awarded to Section Leader T. I. R. Melville, National Fire Service (Scotland): as a Section Leader, he would have commanded 5 pumps, his rank being denoted by two narrow red bands painted on his khaki helmet

British Empire Medal, (Military) G.VI.R., 1st issue (Thomas Inglis Russell Melville), with original wearing pin, extremely fine £180-220

B.E.M. London Gazette 4 June 1943.

Thomas Inglis Russell Melville, whose B.E.M. most probably reflected protracted good service, must accordingly have been kept busy during the famous Clydeside Blitz of early 1941, albeit as an Auxiliary Fireman prior to the setting up of the N.F.S. Certainly his N.F.S. unit, Western No. 2 Area, No. 11 (Scotland) Region, was actually based at Paisley, right at the heart of such momentous raids as those inflicted on Glasgow and Clydeside on the nights of 13-14 March 1941, when over 1000 people were killed and another 1600 seriously injured: at Clydebank, all but seven of the town’s 12,000 homes were damaged.

As a matter of speculation, it is worth mentioning that it was on the night of 11 May 1941 that Rudolf Hess famously parachuted into Melville’s sphere of operations, especially since one of the first uniformed officers to attend the Nazi leader was the Deputy Fire Master of Darnley Fire Station, a sub-division of Western No. 2 Area. Moreover, said Deputy Fire Master’s son was actually working at the Paisley H.Q. that evening, and, no doubt, had some interesting anecdotes to share with the likes of Melville.