Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Police Sergeant F. J. Boyles, City of London Police, who was awarded the Bronze Medal of the Carnegie Hero Fund Trust for risking his life in rescuing a boy hanging by his hands from a gutter of a building on 14 June 1923

Coronation 1902, City of London Police, bronze (P.C. F. J. Boyles.); Coronation 1911, City of London Police (P.S., F. J. Boyles.) mounted as worn, very fine (2) £120-£160

Frederick Joshua Boyles was born in the Parish of Heanton Punchardon, near Barnstaple, Devon, and joined the City of London Police in December 1900, aged 21 years 2 months.

He was awarded the Bronze Medal of the Carnegie Hero Fund Trust for risking his life in rescuing a boy hanging by his hands from a gutter of a building on 14th June 1923, as described in a contemporary news cutting:

‘Little George Taylor, the nine-year-old son of an ex-police sergeant, had a thrilling experience while playing with a boy friend on the flat roof of Police Buildings, New Street, Bishopsgate, E.C., a four-storey building.
A dog on the roof frightened the boys, and Taylor ran to climb over the gate of some steps leading to a lower roof. He lost his footing and fell upon a slanting roof, down which he rolled, but by good fortune he managed to grip the gutter.
For two or three minutes - which seemed an eternity to residents, who had been attracted by his cries of “Mother, I am falling” - he hung 40ft. above the ground, while the frail guttering threatened to give way beneath his weight.
P.S. Boyles, who rescued the boy at the risk of his own life, described the incident to the Daily Sketch yesterday.
“I rushed upon the roof, where another man was trying to reach the boy down the sharp sloping roof, clinging with one hand to the railings above. However, he could get no grip of the lad to lift him. I dashed down the steps to the lower roof, and climbed the railings at the edge.
“Then, standing upon the narrow parapet and grasping the railings with one hand, I was just able to reach round the corner of the building and seize the boys jacket. Thus I swung him over to safety.”’

Sold with copied Police file.