Orders, Decorations and Medals

R.S.P.C.A. Life Saving Medal, silver (Gunner Leslie Painter 1942) complete with top suspension brooch ‘For Humanity’ and case of issue, and sold with an original news cutting, good very fine £120-140

The news cutting, dated 13 March 1943, gives the following details of the award of the silver medal to Gunner J. Leslie Painter, Royal Artillery : ‘A dog was chasing a rabbit, to which a ferret was clinging, across a field at Larkhill (near Salisbury) when all three animals fell into a 120ft well. Mr Lang, the dog’s owner, attempted a rescue, but failed. Next morning Gunner Painter volunteered to go down, found the rabbit dead, but dog and ferret were both alive, and both were rescued safely.’ The medal was presented to Gunner Painter by the Mayor of Salisbury.