Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An interesting Royal Humane Society Medal awarded to George Page, a patrol officer in H.M. Customs at Southampton: after his retirement he was recommended for the Albert Medal for his numerous acts of bravery in the period 1862-64 but in the event he was awarded the Imperial Service Medal ‘as an exceptional case’

Royal Humane Society, large bronze medal (successful), the reverse inscribed, ‘George Page, 26 Sep. 1862’, ring suspension, nearly extremely fine £300-400

George Page, a Patrol Officer with H.M. Customs at Southampton, was awarded the R.H.S. bronze medal for a rescue there on 26 September 1862 (R.H.S. case no. 17009). Then, on 17 November 1862, Page performed another rescue and in recognition of this and his earlier rescue the Royal Humane Society awarded him their silver medal. Both rescues are described in Lambton Young's book Acts of Gallantry (1872, pp. 261-2), thus:

‘On the 26th September 1862, as the passengers were landing in the Southampton Docks from the Jersey steamer Despatch, a barrow man named Charles Dyer, who has very bad sight, struck his eye against a crane on the quay and was thrown backwards into the water by the violence of the blow. The water was twenty feet below the level of the quay wall; he would in all probability have been drowned had it not been for the courage and humanity of Mr George Page, one of the Customs patrol officers, who immediately jumped from the quay into the dock, and held Dyer until they were both rescued by the boats.’

And:

‘On the 17th of November 1862, when James Harris, a dock labourer, was rolling a cask, having a rope attached, the cask overpowered him, he became entangled in the rope, and was drawn over into the water; he struck himself in such a way as to become at once insensible; an instant alarm was raised, when George Page again plunged in with his clothes on, a distance of about twenty feet to the water, and supported him until a rope was thrown to him, which he held until a boat picked them up; he was in the water for five or six minutes, it being very cold, from which and the excitement Page was so exhausted that he could not sit up in the boat or walk alone when brought on shore’.

Following his retirement in 1906 George Page was recommended for the Albert Medal for these and other rescues. Ruled as ineligible due to the lapse of time, Page was – with the King’s approval – uniquely awarded the Imperial Service Medal instead for his gallantry; sold together with copies of the R.H.S. case reports and the 24 page Albert Medal recommendation file (HO 45/10322/129103).