Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Edward VII Edward Medal Second Class for Industry awarded to Foreman F. Smith, Lincoln Water Works, for attempting to rescue a man who had been rendered unconscious while sinking a well at East Markham in Nottinghamshire

Edward Medal (Industry), E.VII.R., Second Class, bronze (Frank Smith) in original fitted presentation case, sometime lightly gilded, otherwise good very fine and very rare £1,800-£2,200

Provenance: John Tamplin Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, September 2003.

E.M. 2nd Class London Gazette 14 February 1911 (in a joint citation with John Wapplington):
‘On the 30th September, 1910, John Wapplington and another labourer, named Albert Templeman, were engaged in sinking a well at East Markham, Nottinghamshire, and had fired a shot in order to blast the rock at the bottom. After an interval, during which they tested the air with a lighted lamp and found no gas, Templeman went down the well and struck the rock with a crowbar. Immediately afterwards he cried out that he was feeling dizzy, and asked Wapplington to lower a ladder and rope. He did not wait to fasten a rope around himself, but tried to mount the ladder, and fell back when he was half way up. Wapplington, calling for help, went down to Templeman’s assistance; but found that he could not lift him, and came up in a dazed condition. After a rest of a quarter of an hour, he bravely made another attempt; but called out that he could not attach the rope to Templeman, as he was overcome by the gas. He managed, however, to reach the top before becoming unconscious. Frank Smith, foreman, then came to the spot with other men, and, fastening the rope round his body, went down the well, and succeeded in getting the rope round Templeman, by which means he was hauled up. Smith reached the surface in a state of collapse, though he soon recovered. Templeman was found to be dead.’

Only 2 silver and 5 bronze Edward Medals (Industry) were awarded during the reign of Edward VII.

Frank Smith was employed by the Lincoln Water Works as a foreman at the time when he performed his act of bravery. The County Coroner, in a letter to the Under Secretary of State at the Home Office, dated 6 December 1910, said of Smith:
‘The man Smith was an absolute stranger to the men and to that particular work, and of course his evidence was fully corroborated and his first attempt was crowned with success. In addition Smith is a man whose word would be taken and his answers were very straight forward whereas Wapplington’s was the exact reverse giving one the immediate impression that he was not speaking the truth or hiding something.’

Smith was recommended for the award of the Edward Medal by the Home Secretary, Winston Churchill, and was presented with his Edward Medal by H.M. King George V at Buckingham Palace on 23 February 1911. He was subsequently employed by Messrs Nuttall & Co., of Patricroft, Manchester, who were the main contractors for the Thurlmere Reservoir being constructed in the Lake District.

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