Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Police Constable C. Smith, City of London Police

Order of St.John Lifesaving Medal, 2nd type, bronze (Presented to P.C. Clive Smith (City of London Police) July 1912); British War and Victory Medals (281228 Gnr., R.A.); Coronation 1911, City of London Police (P.C.), very fine and better (4) £380-440

‘On 7th December 1911 at 9.25 p.m., P.C. Smith who was off duty and proceeding towards his station, saw two horses attached to a brewer’s dray galloping along Queen Victoria Street and thence across the north end of Blackfriars Bridge to the Victorian Embankment where there were a number of persons passing to and fro, as well as other traffic. P.C. Smith ran towards them, caught hold of the reins of the offside horse, and after holding on for about fifty yards succeeded in stopping them by the kerb in front of the west end of the Royal Hotel, near the refuge for train passengers. The runaway horses were very powerful and attached to a heavy dray, they were proceeding at a high speed and any slip or loss of his hold by the constable would have meant his being run over and probably killed.’

The above description was initially received by the Chapter General of the Order on 27th February 1912. The Lifesaving Medal was awarded on 30th July 1912 by Viscount Knutsford.