Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria to coincide with the OMRS Convention

Pair: Police Sergeant Thomas Whittle, Bolton Borough Police

The Society for the Protection of Life from Fire, 5th type (1892-1901) bronze medal (Thomas Whittle, Bolton, 13-9-28) in its John Pinches case of issue; Bolton Borough Police Good Service Medal, silver, 2 bars, Over 25 Years, Over 30 Years (Constable 187. Thomas Whittle, appointed 27 December 1920) good very fine (2) £250-300

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of R.W. Gould, MBE.

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Police Constable Thomas Whittle was awarded the Society’s Bronze Medal and £1 1s. for saving a life from a fire at the Bush Hotel, Churchgate, Bolton, on 13 September 1928.

‘P.C. Thomas Whittle had been attracted by Miss McMahon’s cries of “Fire” and “Help” from her bedroom window. He was admitted to the house by the licensee, who had himself tried to reach Miss McMahon’s room and had been driven back by the flames with scorched arms, and he at once rushed up the stairs along the corridor into which the flames were coming through the thin partition wall, and to the room in which the imprisoned woman was still hysterically calling for help.

A return by the way he had come, with the woman in a state of semi-collapse, was impossible, and so, placing her on a ledge outside her bedroom window, he jumped on to the roof of an adjoining building about 12 feet below, and then persuaded Miss McMahon to jump into his arms. No sooner was she safe than she fainted, and he had to carry her along the roof, break a window to gain access to a lower floor of the hotel, and get her through there, a task in which he was assisted by P.C. Doyle.’ Sold with further details including lengthy report from the Bolton Evening News.