Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A K.P.F.S.M. for Gallantry group of five awarded to Temporary Sergeant C. J. Wallis, Bristol City Police Force

King’s Police and Fire Service Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue, for Gallantry (Charles Jarvis Wallis, Temporary Sergeant, Bristol City Police Force); Defence Medal; Coronation 1953; Police Long Service Medal, E.II.R., 1st issue (Inspr. Charles J. Wallis); Bristol City Police Good Service Medal (Sgt. C. Wallis) with original case of issue, nearly extremely fine (5) £600-£800

K.P.F.S.M. London Gazette 25 June 1946.

Police Gallantry by J. Peter Farmery states: ‘At 6.55 p.m. on 14th April 1946, Temporary Sergeant Wallis received information that three boys, aged 13, 11 and 9, were stranded on St. Vincent’s Rocks in the Avon Gorge, near the Suspension Bridge. The Sergeant went to the Bridge and from there saw the three boys on a narrow ledge of the cliff about 200 feet from the bottom. The cliff at this point is about 300 feet high. The Sergeant climbed onto a buttress of the bridge, attracted the boys’ attention and told them to stay where they were, he then went to the top of the cliff. Sergeant Wallis volunteered to go down the cliff to the boys, and put a lifeline round his body, securing a second line on which to bring up the boys. He reached the boys who were very frightened, and after some persuasion the eldest boy went first. The Sergeant tied him onto the spare rope, and both were pulled to the top. The Sergeant then went down for the next boy, but on the way up, his rope became entangled on the cliff, and he had to release it and cling to the cliff face until it was released. When he reached the top he was at the point of collapse. Another Constable rescued the third boy.’

Wallis’s longer, original recommendation survives in the National Archives.

Charles Jarvis Willis joined the Bristol Police Force in 1931 and was 35 years old at the time of the above incident. He was awarded the Defence Medal in 1946, the Good Service Medal in in 1948, promoted to Inspector in 1949 and received both the Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal and Coronation Medal in 1953.

Sold with copied research including the full original recommendation for the recipient’s K.P.F.S.M.