Coins and Historical Medals

SOMERSET, Bath, The Bath Humane Society, an engraved silver Life Saving medal by C. Reily and G. Storer, crest of a nag’s head in coronet and mural crown, hoc pretium cive servato, named (T.E.M. Marsh, Ætatis xvi), rev. socs. bath in resuscitat inter mortuorum around date vii aug mdcccxxxiv, hallmarked London 1834, 48mm, 22.34g. Very fine and toned, very rare and worthy of further research; with suspension loop £150-200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, British Educational Award Medals from the Collection formed by the late T.H. Watts.

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The Bath Humane Society dates to 1805. The enlarged motto hoc pretivm cive servato tvlit [He has obtained this prize for having saved the life of a citizen] was used by the Royal Humane Society. Thomas Edward Milles Marsh learned his engineering skills from Isambard Kingdom Brunel and is noted as earning £300 per annum while working for Brunel as an assistant engineer in 1849. Marsh published a report on the collapse of the the Widcombe Bridge, a wooden archway over the river Avon in Bath, which collapsed under the weight of a crowd rushing to see the Bath & West of England Agricultural Society’s centenary show on 6 June 1877. Upwards of 100 people were thrown 40 feet into the river; there were some 12 fatalities and over 50 injured. Marsh’s single-span wrought iron replacement opened later the same year and was fully restored in 2013

The medal is of the Bath Humane Society (Founded 1805). The first three sentences in the footnote should be ignored