Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A K.P.F.S.M. and ‘double’ Medal of the Society for the Protection of Life From Fire group of nine awarded to Superintendent G. A. Bainbridge, Cardiff City Fire Brigade

King’s Police and Fire Service Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue, for Distinguished Service (George A. Bainbridge. Div. Offr. No. 20 F.F.); Defence Medal; Jubilee 1935 (Supt. G. A. Bainbridge. 1935) contemporarily engraved naming; Coronation 1937, unnamed as issued; Cardiff City Watch Committee Conspicuous Bravery Medal, silver, the reverse engraved ‘Supt. C. A. Bainbridge. 11 March 1929.’; Medal of the Society for the Protection of Life From Fire, silver (Superintendent Bainbridge, Cardiff, 21-2-37.) rank corrected; Medal of the Society for the Protection of Life From Fire, silver (C. [sic] A. Bainbridge, Cardiff. 6-3-40.); Association of Professional Fire Brigade Officers Long Service Medal, silver, with two ‘10 Years’ award bars (Supt. G. A. Bainbridge. 1916); National Fire Brigades Association Long Service Medal, silver, with one ‘Twenty Years’ and four ‘Five Years’ bars (6086 George A. Bainbridge.) all mounted for display purposes in a Spink wooden frame, generally good very fine (9) £600-£800

K.P.F.S.M. London Gazette 1 January 1945.

George Allen ‘Dick’ Bainbridge was born in Sleaford, Lincolnshire in 1879 and worked first in Sheffield for the City Police and Fire Brigade (1900-10) before moving to Eccles (1910-15), and then St. Helens, Lancashire (1915-20). However, it was the move to Cardiff in 1920 that was to make his name: some twenty five years of service and three bravery awards that saw him attend countless fires. He transferred to the Pontypridd area in 1941 as part of the National Fire Service, and was awarded the King’s Police and Fire Service Medal in January 1945 as Divisional Officer (part-time), No. 20 (Cardiff) Fire Force. The inventor of various implements for use by fire fighters, he died in Cardiff in 1969.

Sold with a large quantity of copied research, giving details of some of the fires that he attended as a Superintendent; and various photographic images of the recipient.