A BRAVE DEED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1026, 2 April 1912, Page 4

A BRAVE DEED.

At the annual Court of the Royal Humane Society, a mouth ago, Sub-Lieutenant Charles C. Halliday, Royal Naval Reserve, was voted the Stanhope gold medal. This honour is awarded annually by the society to the person who is judged to have performed the bravest deed of lifesaving during the year. The act which won the distinction for Lieutenant Halliday was the following : At 9.40 a.m. on Nov. 29th, 1910, while the Glasgow steamer River Clyde was in the Red Sea, going full-speed on her homeward voyage, a Chinese firemen threw himself overboard from the foredeck, with the intention of committing suicide. Mr Halliday, who was then the second officer of the ship, at once sprang after him, but as the man never rose to the surface, he was unable to effect the rescue. The steamer was stopped, and a boat got away, which picked Mr Halliday up after be had been twenty minutes in the water. The attempted rescue involved not only great risk of drowning, but also of being cut to pieces by the propeller, or being devoured by the sharks wh : cb infest the waters of the Red Sea in great numbers. When the incident was reported to the Royal Humane Society Mr Halliday was awarded the silver medal. He has now been chosen from among the five to whom silver medals were given as being the most worthy to receive the Stanhope gold medal. Admiral Sir Digby Morant, on whose motion the award was made, said the merits ot the other four silver medalists were carefully considered, but the committee of the society regarded Mr Halliday’s act as the one which involved the greatest risk.

Lieutenant Halliday is now an officer in the service ol theCuaard Steamship Company.