Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society, General Medal, silver (To P.C. George Dalgarno, for Gallant Service, 29/3/36), with silver brooch bar on ribbon, in case of issue, extremely fine £200-250

Sold with an original and a photocopied newspaper clipping of the attempted rescue. Extracts from the former read, ‘A Bootle police constable risked his life in a vain attempt to save a boy who fell across the live rail on the Liverpool-Ormskirk electric railway line near Ford, Bootle, last night. The boy Henry Walter Green, lived with his parents, Mr and Mrs Walter Green, at Park Road, Orrell, Bootle, and the rescue attempt was made by Police Constable George Dalgarno, of Bailey Drive, Orrell. Henry was playing with his brother Fred, aged 12, and two companions in the fields close to the railway, when one of them threw a stick belonging to Walter on to the permanent way. The boy climbed over the fence guarding the line, and made his way across the rails towards the spot where the stick was lying. He tripped and fell, and his playmates were horrified to see smoke rising from his clothing. ... Police Constable Dalgarno, who had finished duty for the day, ran to the railway track. Folding his coat, he stood on it to minimise the danger of electrocuting himself, and then snatched the boy’s body from the rail. The constable was unharmed. With Police Constable James who had then arrived, he applied artificial respiration to the boy, until Bootle ambulance arrived, and on the journey to the hospital a further effort by means of oxygen apparatus. The boy died, however, before the ambulance reached Bootle General Hospital. ...’