Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

United States of America, Humane Society of Massachusetts, 5th type, small silver medal, 38mm, the reverse engraved ‘To Joseph McGann for bravery in saving life Woburn Feb. 18. 1938’ with integral silver bar suspension, lacking riband, good very fine £180-220

Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, December 2004.

‘On February 18th, 1938, at Woburn, Mass., three boys fell through the ice into deep water in a pond. Joseph McGann, a taxi driver, happened to be passing, and though no help was near, he plunged in, and after a struggle saved one of the boys, while another sank to the bottom and was drowned. By this time others had arrived and Francis M. Coakley jumped in and saved the remaining boy, McGann being too exhausted to re-enter the water.’

For their gallantry McGann was awarded the Humane Society of Massachusetts’ silver Medal, and Coakley a Certificate.