Auction Catalogue

22 September 2006

Starting at 11:30 AM

.

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

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Lot

№ 1097

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22 September 2006

Hammer Price:
£1,400

A fine B.E.M. for Gallantry and Glasgow Bravery Medal pair to Constable I. F. G. Harris, Glasgow Police, for overpowering an armed robber

British Empire Medal
, (Civil) E.II.R., with oak leaf gallantry emblem (Iain Fleming Gillespie Harris), in Royal Mint case of issue; Corporation of Glasgow Bravery Medal, 3rd type, 9ct. gold, hallmarks for Edinburgh 1965 (Constable Iain Harris 1970), complete with gold brooch bar, in T. S. Cuthbert, Glasgow case of issue, extremely fine, rare (2) £1000-1400

B.E.M. for Gallantry London Gazette 27 April 1971. ‘Iain Fleming Gillespie Harris, Constable, City of Glasgow Police and James Irvine, Bakery Saleman, Glasgow’.

‘A man armed with a single barrel sawn-off shot-gun entered a general store occupied by a woman and her aged and blind mother. He demanded money. The occupier talked to him to gain time but eventually lifted a bottle intending to throw it into the street to attract attention. The man fired at her and as she ducked most of the shot passed over her smashing a display cabinet, she was slightly cut about the face. The man ran from the shop and she followed to raise the alarm. Mr Irvine and two other men were in a public house on the opposite side of the street when they heard the shot. They went into the street where they saw the man carrying a shotgun run away towards some waste ground. The three men entered Mr Irvine’s car and drove off in the direction of the armed man in an effort to intercept him. Leaving the car at intervals to examine various streets, they eventually caught sight of the man again and followed him in the car. As they drew closer to him they saw Constable Harris and another Constable on the other side of the road and called to them that the man was armed and had shot a woman. The two constables ran across the road towards the man, who stopped and from a short distance away pointed the gun at them and threatened to shoot. At that point Mr Irvine drove the car up onto the pavement towards the man, who turned and fired at the car, shattering the windscreen and wounding Mr Irvine in the face. Aided by this distraction Constable Harris ran forward and grappled with the man as he tried to reload the shotgun. During the struggle he was struck on the back of the neck by the barrel of the shotgun but with assistance was able to overpower the man’.