Presentations in Bridgwater, as reported in the local newspapers. This is probably not a complete list.
The Royal Humane Society was founded in London in 1774 by two doctors as the Society for the Recovery of Persons Apparently Drowned. Resuscitation procedures were new and controversial and very few people could either swim or knew what to do when someone was pulled from the water. Yet many people bathed in ponds and rivers in summer, skated on ice in winter or worked on the rivers and canals.
The Society initially offered a reward of two guineas for a rescue attempt and four guineas for a successful rescue. It also distributed information on how to save lives and employed “icemen” to rescue Londoners from the Serpentine in Hyde Park. Over time branches were set up in other ports and coastal towns and later life-saving equipment was provided. The Society still awards medals and certificates in the UK and overseas.
1859 Thomas Griffiths, Bridgwater pilot, for saving 15 people from death by drowning, including Thomas Warren, 8, who fell into the River Parrett while playing on the railings of Binford Place.
1869 Edward Silvey jumped into the River Parrett at Bridgwater, near the residence of Mr Hammill, in an unsuccessful attempt to save the life of Andrew Munday.
1875 Thomas Griffiths was awarded the Bronze clasp, for saving twenty lives. He had previously received the Bronze Medal (see 1859 entry).
1876 Philip Henry Headford, 16, saved a young man named Hawkins who was bathing in a flooded claypit pond near Salmon Parade.
1877 James O’Brien rescued a boy who fell into River Parrett and was to be recommended for an award (but no report of award made.)
1881 George Haysham, 26, for risking his own life to rescue William Bovett who had fallen through the ice into Browne’s Pond. George’s biography can be read on the website of the Friends of the Wembdon Road Cemetery.
1882 Benjamin Snow rescued a man named Durham at Dunwear. Both worked for Messrs. Browne & Co. Durham was wheeling a barrow across a plank between a ship and the river bank and fell in.
1885 Richard Popham, builder, who rescued a drowning girl. Alice Musgrave blacked out while standing on the bank of the River Parrett and fell in.
1885 Henry Crawford, a young man in the employ of the Great Western Railway Company, for his gallantry in rescuing a child named William Knight, who accidentally fell into the River Parrett.
1888 James Fursland, 16, for gallantry in rescuing a child named Sellars from the River Parrett, when the tide was at its height and flowing with great rapidity. The Mayor said it was the fourth or fifth medal awarded to persons in Bridgwater.
1890 John Meek of Bridgwater for rescuing John Francis from drowning in the River Parrett.
1908 Henry George Coram, 15, of Hamp Street, attempted to save another child. He brought him back to the bank but the child could not be revived.
1914 Sydney Carver, seaman of Albert Street, for saving the life of a man named Irwin who was boarding his vessel using a ladder as a gangplank and fell into the River Parrett.