Life Saving Awards from the Collection of John Wilson

Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire, 3rd type, bronze, reverse inscribed, ‘Specimen. T. J. Holt Esq. Deputy (Member of Committee) 1851’, unmounted, minor edge bruise, good very fine £150-200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Life Saving Awards from the Collection of John Wilson.

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Ex D.N.W. 17 September 2009.

Extract from Saved from the Flames, by Roger Willoughby and John Wilson - Among the type III awards were several honorary or commemorative presentations. A number of bronze medals were thus given to the Society Vice-presidents, committee members and the Honorary Surgeon in 1852. The precise number of such honorary awards is not noted, though the Fifteenth Annual Report of the Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire (London, 1851, pp. 6-7) lists 28 people on the Society’s Committee of Management, added to which it details 13 Vice-Presidents. Adding the Honorary Surgeon to this number gives 42 candidates for these commemorative issues. It seems possible that other Society officers, such as the Secretary, the 3 Collectors and 2 Inspectors who are also listed in the Annual Report may have been included in this distribution of these awards.