Orders, Decorations and Medals

Royal Humane Society, small silver medal (successful), (John Brass, Nov. 20. 1903) complete with silver ribbon buckle, edge bruise, otherwise very fine £140-180

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals Formed by The Late John Cooper.

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Sacriston Colliery, Durham. On 16 November 1903, at 11.38 a.m., there was a sudden inrush of water into the Colliery, flooding the mine up to the roof for a great distance. Three miners, R. Richardson, J. W. Whittaker and T. McCormick, became trapped underground. From the 16th to the 20th, six miners, including John Brass, kept at their work in their efforts at rescue despite the risk from drowning, fire, damp, foul gas, or falls of stone from the roof. Eventually they were able to save Richardson, after a lapse of 92 hours, but the other two men were drowned. All six miners were awarded the Silver Medal of the Royal Humane Society.