Royal Humane Society, small bronze medal (successful) (Elijah Cox. 1st May. 1892.) with integral top riband buckle, good very fine £100-£140

Case No 25888:

‘At great personal risk, rescued William Goldsworthy from drowning in the Bristol Channel, on the 1st May, 1892.

Cox was an expert swimmer, and went to the assistance of Goldsworthy and another, and was the means of getting some wreckage for them to hold on to until they were taken into a boat.’

Elijah Cox was born in Newport, Monmouthshire in 1855, the son of Charles Cox, a Bristol Channel pilot. Cox became a licensed Bristol Channel pilot himself (as well as his two brothers), and was Master of the steam tug Queen of the Usk out of Newport in 1883. He was subsequently appointed Master of the Templar and the Leda, the latter owned by his brother and both out of Newport.

At 11am on 1 May 1892 the Leda was run down by the steamship Radyr, in Morfa Bay, Pendine, in the Bristol Channel. The three men who comprised the crew of the Leda were thrown into the water by the force of the impact. Both Cox and Goldsworthy were taken to Newport Infirmary, with Cox suffering from ‘concussion of the spine.’ The event, as well as the rest of the Cox family life, received considerable coverage in the local press over the coming years. A history of brawling at Newport Pilots’ meetings and inter-family problems played out in the local press.

Cox died in Newport in June 1934.

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