West of Scotland Swimming Club Medal for Life Saving, oval, silver, engraved disc set within a beaded frame, obv. set with a gold star and inscribed, ‘For Saving Life 3rd July 1869’; rev. inscribed, ‘West of Scotland Swimming Club Presented to Jos. Henderson’, 40 x 33mm., with ornate fitting and ring suspension, with modern ribbon, good very fine £120-160

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Jack Boddington Collection of Life Saving Medals.

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‘On Saturday evening, about half past seven o’clock, a boy named Thomas Moore, residing at 90 High Street, scrambled out on to some pipes at the river bank (River Clyde), opposite Messrs Dixon’s engine house, and accidentally fell into the water. He was unnoticed for a moment or two, and had sunk once or twice beneath the surface, when he was observed by J. Henderson, a young lad 15 years of age, who gallantly leapt into the river with his clothes on, and caught the drowning boy, and held his head above water till they were both rescued. We understand that this gallant act will not pass altogether unrewarded, as Henderson, who only learnt to swim last year, is a member of the West of Scotland Swimming Club, and he will receive the silver medal of the club given to those members who are instrumental in saving life from drowning’. (Extract from the Glasgow Herald of 5 May 1869). (The medal and incident is described in ‘A Scottish Swimming Club Medal for Saving Life’, by Jack Boddington, L.S.A.R.S. Journal 39, p31). Sold with copied research.