Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

U.S.A., Carnegie Fund Medallion, reverse inscription in raised letters, ‘George L. Brown Jr., who saved Arthur F. Frederick from drowning, Evanston, Wyo., November 6, 1955.’, 78mm., bronze, in case of issue, good very fine £300-350

‘Brown, aged thirty-two, railroad fireman, saved Arthur F. Frederick, aged nine, from drowning, Evanston, Wyo., November 6, 1955. When they fell through the ice on a pond, Arthur and another boy, both fairs swimmers, were submerged briefly in water twelve feet deep sixty feet from the nearest bank. The ice broke off when they attempted to climb out; and the other boy, whose boots were filling with water, then grasped Arthur and caused both boys again to be submerged briefly. Arthur reached the edge of the hole and clung to the ice, but the other boy again sank beneath the surface. A third boy ran to a nearby railroad yard and summoned five workmen, including Brown. At a wooden dock at the bank, Brown undressed to his undershorts and then extended himself in a prone position on the ice. When he started to crawl toward Arthur, the ice broke under him, and he plunged into the water, He then broke a path in the ice to fifteen feet from the dock but was too weak to continue. He swam back to the dock and aided the other men in placing a thirty-foot utility pole alongside the path he had made in the ice. Entering the water again, Brown moved to the end of the pole and thence twenty feet farther to near Arthur. Grasping Arthur, who did not struggle, Brown towed him twenty feet back through the path in the ice and lifted him onto the pole. The boy who had summoned the workmen then told them of the plight of Arthur’s companion and, although cut from the jagged ice and badly chilled, Brown volunteered to search for the missing boy. Restrained by the others, Brown dressed and accompanied them to the railroad roundhouse, where they summoned firemen who later recovered the boy’s body. Arthur was cold and weak but recovered. The cuts on Brown’s body healed without treatment.’ (Carnegie Fero Fund Commission, File No.43923). Brown was awarded the Bronze medal and $500.