Orders, Decorations and Medals

The post-war M.B.E., K.P.F.S.M. group of five awarded to Assistant Chief Officer A. S. Shawyer, London Fire Brigade, who served as a Column Officer in the City and East End of London throughout the Blitz and beyond, during which period he was commended for bravery in a flying bomb incident: a talented middleweight boxer, he was the A.B.A’s Champion in 1933, the British Empire Amateur Champion in 1934 and the winner of the famous “Golden Gloves Tournament” at Madison Square Gardens, New York in 1935

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Civil) Member’s 2nd type breast badge; Defence Medal 1939-45; King’s Police and Fire Service Medal, G.VI.R., 2nd issue, for Distinguished Service (Alfred S. Shawyer, Div. Officer, London Fire Brigade); Coronation 1953; Fire Brigade Long Service, E.II.R. (Div. Offr. Alfred S. Shawyer), mounted as worn in this order, good very fine or better (5) £600-800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Ron Penhall Collection.

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M.B.E. London Gazette 12 June 1958.

K.P.M. London Gazette 1 January 1952.

Alfred Samuel Shawyer was born in 1907 and entered the London Fire Brigade in 1928, the eldest of four brothers to serve the same cause. As noted above, he was a well-known boxer in the pre-war era, and was actually advanced to Sub. Officer soon after returning from his victory in Madison Square Gardens, New York. In the same rank he won his first commendation for bravery at a fire in the City of London in October 1939, and was advanced to Station Officer in the following year.

Thus ensued a wartime career that encompassed fire-fighting in the City and East End of London during the worst bombing raids, and the award of his second commendation for his rescue work when a flying bomb buried five people underneath a building in the Highway, Stepney in 1944 - he and another tunnelled under a mass of debris, ‘bringing two people out alive after hours of dangerous and exhausting work’. He had, meanwhile, been advanced to Column Leader.

With the reconstruction of the London Fire Brigade in 1948, Shawyer was appointed Assistant Divisional Officer in ‘B’ Division, which included the “high fire risk” area of his old hunting ground, the City and East End of London - in January 1949 he received his third commendation for a fire in Fleet Street, on which occasion he assisted in tying a line around a victim, getting him out of a window and lowering him to safety below. In the following year he became Divisional Officer of ‘D’ Division, South-West London, but he returned to ‘B’ Division in 1952, the year in which he was awarded the King’s Police and Fire Service Medal. He subsequently added the Coronation Medal 1953 to his accolades, together with the Long Service Medal in August 1955 and his M.B.E. in 1958.

Latterly an Assistant Chief Officer at Brigade H.Q., Lambeth, Shawyer retired in December 1966, when his senior described him as having ‘a reputation as a fire ground officer which is second to none in Fire Brigade circles’. He was, too, very much a Fire Officer of the old school, a man who preferred to enter burning buildings rather then ‘watering the walls’. He died in May 1971, aged 63 years.