Orders, Decorations and Medals

The Exchange George Cross awarded to 16-year-old Bertie Crosby for his bravery in attempting to save life during a serious fire at a London film processing works in 1927 during which he suffered extensive burns

George Cross, the reverse officially inscribed (Bertie Frederick Crosby, 1927) contained in its Royal Mint fitted presentation case, extremely fine £1800-2200

Edward Medal London Gazette 15 May 1928.

‘About 10.40 a.m. on the 9th of September, 1927, a serious fire broke out at the premises of the Film Waste Products Limited, Redhill Street, Regent’s Park. A quantity of cinematograph film which was being manipulated in a drying machine ignited without any warning, and the fire immediately spread to other film on adjacent benches and in other containers.

Crosby, who was then only 16 years of age, was passing through the drying room when the fire broke out. He at once ran to a door leading out into a yard, but on hearing a scream from near the drying machine he turned back into the room and made his way towards the machine, the contents of which were burning fiercely. He was unable to see anyone and he returned to the door leading into the yard. Here Crosby met the foreman and together, Crosby leading, they re-entered the room. As they made their way in, Crosby saw a girl fall up against one of the work tables, and he ran to her and half pulled and half carried her towards the door. Outside the door they both fell. Crosby was stupefied by the heat and the fumes, and did not recover full consciousness until he found himself outside in the yard with his clothes alight. He extinguished his clothes by the canal which ran at the bottom of the yard, and was subsequently removed to St Pancras Hospital.

The fire, which spread to another factory and two workshops, was particularly violent and resulted unfortunately in the death of five persons. Crosby could easily have escaped from the building without injury, but on two separate occasions he re-entered the room where the fire originated, in an endeavour to save life. The girl whom he helped out of the building afterwards died, and the burns sustained by Crosby were such that at one time it was not thought that he would recover.’

Bertie Crosby, who was born on 6 July 1912 and educated at Kingston Grammar School, was in hospital for five weeks as a result of the burns he suffered in the fire. The story of Bertie’s bravery captured the public’s imagination and admiration, and the papers of the time, both local and national, gave the story big coverage. He received the Edward Medal from the hands of King George V at an Investiture at Buckingham Palace on 28 June 1928, and was additionally presented with an engraved silver watch by the Carnegie Hero Fund Trust, and a certificate and cheque for five guineas from the Society for the Protection of Life from Fire. Four years previously he had saved his 3-year-old brother from drowning in Hampstead ponds.

Bertie Crosby died at in Seaford, Sussex, on 30 January 1972, but not before learning that his Edward Medal was to be exchanged for the George Cross, which was presented to his widow on 30 November the same year. The G.C. is sold with a good quantity of original documentation including numerous contemporary news cuttings, many of which are illustrated, two Home Office letters and an official typed citation for the Edward Medal.