ROYAL HUMANE SOCIETY

Hokitika Guardian, 3 November 1931, Page 4

ROYAL HUMANE SOCIETY

LIST OF AWARDS

(By Telegraph, — Be. Press Association)

CHBISTCHURUM, November 2.

Tiiutaeu or tne awards granted at the meeting of the Royal Humane Society of iNev Zealand to-day were to men concerned in the rescue of the

crew Oi tiie xi ogress, Wiecacd no. Ohiro Bay on May 1, 1931. The following awards wer made:; —

tm, er iiie.mi: vnuud, riaiicig Petherick, traffic inspector, Wellington aged 34. Pethenick, with a. line round his waist, endeavoured to get out to the rocks where some of the crew of the ship.' were floating in the water, but was forced back by heavy seas. Later with Rafael o Alfa no and A. Humphreys, he tried to reach the rocks in a .dinghy. Pethprick dragged a man into the boat.

Silver medal: Walter Sydney Hammond, police- constable, Wellington, who swam out with a line and attempted to rescue two men clinging to the rocks. He was unable to reach them, and was liimself thrown into swirling waters. He received injuries.

Silver medal: Rafaelo Alfano, fisherman, aged 37’. He went out with a life line in a treacherous sea, and lie rescued a man named AVinton, also with Humphreys and Petherick, he went out in the dinghy v and rescued two other men. " -

Silver medal: Frederick Arthur Horace Baker, police constable, aged 46. He took the. dinghy out in the heavy sea and rescued a fireman. In returning to shore, the dinghy cap-?; sized and the constable was struck .by the dinghy 1 and had several ribs broken. He held* his man and brought him ashore unconscious.

Bronze medals: Peter Jsbester, Salvi Volpieedi, Salvo Greco and Cataldo Ma.zzola (fishermen), and Hugo Lupi (builder),: who’launched a boat and went to the assistance of the fr,en washed about among* the rocks. Hammond and Degerholm were brought ashore l>v this boat’s crew.

Bronze medal: Andrew George Tait, fisherman, who, with Constable Text, went nut in a small boat and rescued men 400 to 500 yards out.

Bronze medal: Ahchihald Humph? reys, tram conductor, who with .Alfano and another, took a dinghy amongst the rocks in the rwgh sea. It is stated that'these men ' rescued three members of the crew. Bronze medal: Rafaelo Persico, a fisherman, who ,pjunged.-into the Jreavy sea and rescued an exhausted man. Bronze medal: Maurice O’Connor, who swam out amidst the rocks and rescued a Member of the Mew. He was assisted by Rafaelo Persito. .

The brriize medal, was also awarded two Maoris, Hnn Pet and Tete Helison, of Te Kahn, near Opotild, who rescued threp men from a disabled launch that was drifting towards a rockv coast in mountainous seas. .

Certificates of merit were awarded: Alice Glover, factory machinist, of Auckland, who rescued a girl from drowning at Wairakei on January 1; to Margaret Donelason, aged 19, wno rescued a man from drowning at Port Waikato on February 15.

Mavis Lapwood, of Tuakau, who assisted in the letter r scue, was awarded a letter of- commendation. A similar letter is to be sent to Joseph Larrett, for jumping into Auckland Harbour and holding up a woman who had jumped from a ferry steamer cn Julv sth.