Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Royal Shipwreck Relief and Humane Society of New South Wales, silver, the reverse inscribed ‘Awarded to Eric H. Haire for Saving Life, Newcastle Harbour N.S.W. 3rd Sept. 1916’ with ring and straight bar suspension, and top riband bar, minor edge nicks, nearly extremely fine, rare £300-£400

Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, December 2000.

‘Eric Hamilton Haire (aged 16 years). Awarded the Society’s Silver Medal and Certificate of Merit:
On September 3rd, 1916, a motor car, owned and driven by Mr Horace Cohen, accompanied by his wife and Mrs H. M. Cohen and Miss Marks, while going on the punt at Newcastle, by some means had too much speed and crashed into a sulky containing Mr and Mrs Dyer and baby, forcing it over the flap board and into the harbour, followed by the car and its occupants. A Mission launch in charge of the Rev. W. F. Haire was in the vicinity, and without hesitation Mr Haire’s son, Eric, plunged in and succeeded in getting two ladies named Mrs Juliet Cohen and Miss Gladys Marks to the side of the launch, and also returned and endeavoured to rescue Mrs Dyer’s baby which however, with its parents, were unfortunately drowned.’