Five: Police Constable William Braine, Bootle Police, late Carpenter’s Mate, Mercantile Fleet Auxiliary

1914-15 Star (Car. Mte., M.F.A.); British War and Victory Medals (Car. Mte., M.F.A.); Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society, General Medal, silver (To P.C. 34 (Bootle) William Braine, For Gallant Service, 26th Jan. 1912); Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society, General Medal, bronze (To P.C. 34 (Bootle) William Braine, For Gallant Service, 14th December 1910) very fine (5) £440-480

‘Bronze Medal and Vote of Thanks to Police-Constable 34, Bootle (William Braine), for stopping a runaway horse attached to a spring cart in Stanley Road, Bootle, on 14th December’. (Ref: Liverpool Shipwreck & Humane Society – 72nd Annual Report, year ending 1st July 1911, p.27).

‘Silver Medal and Certificate of Thanks to P.C.34, Bootle (Wm Braime) for stopping a runaway horse attached to a wagon in Stanley Road, on 25th January’. (Ref: Liverpool Shipwreck & Humane Society – 73rd Annual Report, year ending 1st July 1912, p.24).

As a Carpenter’s Mate in the M.F.A., he earned his 1914-15 Star with service aboard the armed merchant cruiser Oropesa. In March 1915 as part of the 10th Cruiser Squadron, she sank a German submarine off Skerrymore Lighthouse. Lent to the French Navy in 1917 and renamed Champagne, she was sunk by a German submarine in the Irish Sea on 15 October 1917. With copied society report extracts and other research.