Royal Humane Society, small silver medal (successful) (William Brimelow 21st September 1883) lacking integral top riband buckle, suspension claw re-affixed, very fine £360-£440

R.H.S. Case No. 22,206 Mr William Brimelow: ‘A furnaceman [Howarth] in the employ of Mr Brimelow of Deansgate, Bolton, entered the cupola of a blast furnace for the purpose of replacing some lining fire bricks which had fallen during the charging process. The fires had been lighted with coke some hours previously. The man succumbed from the effects of the noxious gases and fell insensible. Mr William Brimelow, son of the proprietor, rushed to the stage, went through the opening for charging the furnace and by means of a ladder (inconveniently longer than the purpose required) descended and succeeded at extreme personal risk in bringing the insensible man out.’

Brimelow was a quiet, lightly built man of 5ft 5”, who managed to carry Howarth - a man weighing approximately 13 stone - up a ladder, and squeeze him through a two-foot-square opening. Upon exiting the furnace, it was found that the furnaceman’s mouth was full of blood and that his breathing had ceased. Brimelow was forced to revive him by mouth-to-nose resuscitation. Howarth made a full recovery after several months of hospitalisation. Brimelow, however, took many months to recover from the severe muscle and lung damage he had suffered as a consequence of his gallant rescue. In later life he built his reputation around the manufacture of Royal Hunter Cycles.

The above rescue has a chapter dedicated to it in Stories of the Royal Humane Society, by F. Mundell.

Sold with copied research.