Last year SAHPA
requested examples, especially certificates, of a little known and short-lived
Salvation Army Award presented for bravery to members of the Life-Saving Scouts
and Guards. We were delighted to receive the following concerning one brave
Salvation Army Scout from Guildford.
Henry James Hall
was born on 26th September 1907 in Guildford, Surrey. He was the
fourth of five children, the others all being girls. In 1918 Henry, apparently
always regarded as being very active, joined the Guildford Troop of the Life
Saving Scouts. Whilst playing near home one day in early 1919, he became aware
of a boy who was swimming in the River Wey at Stoughton (a mile or so from the
centre of Guildford) in danger of drowning. James jumped into the water and
with some difficult, got the drowning boy to land, after which James promptly
fainted with exhaustion.
According to the
Salvation Army Year Book for 1920, James was one of ten people to receive an
award (four silver medallions, four bronze and two certificates). James’ act of
bravery was first announced in The
Warrior and Life-Saving Scout and Guard for August 1919 where more details
were given:
“Scout James Hall, of Guildford, rescued a boy of
thirteen years of age who was sinking in exhaustion in the river at Guildford,
by swimming out to him and bringing him safely to the bank, he himself then
fainting from the strain of the effort needed to do this. A very plucky act
indeed.”
The War Cry of 25th
October 1919 devotes a column to a report of the Annual Display by the “Life-Saving Scouts and Guards of the World”
held at the Congress Hall. The report states that the Chief of the Staff
(Commissioner Higgins) presided over the displays and awards. When giving the
awards, including to James, several of the recipients were so small that he
sometimes “had to bend very low in order
to pin the decorations to their breasts.”
The Young Soldier of 1st
November 1919 devotes two columns to a very vivid description of the Annual
gathering. This ranges from the “entry of
Troops, the fanfares of heralds on their long, shining trumpets, the thirty
standard-bearers, the buglers, the drums, (and) the battalions of scouts and
Guards” to the award ceremony, each bulletin of rescue evoking “terrific applause.” Also seen was drill
by a “squad of hefty lads” from the
Congress Hall Scouts, displays of “children
being ‘revived’ after a gas attack… (and) a life-sized baby doll was bathed,
dressed, fed and laid to sleep,” musical displays, and a saving from fire display by North London
Scouts.”
The Warrior and Life-Saving Scout and Guard for December 1919 carries another report of the Annual, written by
the Territorial Organizer for the Life-Saving Scouts and Guides, Staff-Captain
W. R. Dalziel. In it he mentions that the next day was the first Sunday
Councils (in the Florence Booth Hall) for Scout and Guard Troop leaders. About
200 attended and after a morning address on “Character-building
and Leadership” the afternoon included the opportunity for questions “to clear up doubtful points of regulation
and administration.”
Pictured below
is James’ certificate and a picture of his family. These have been identified
as (back row) Doris, Winifred and Ellen, (middle row) Henry James Snr, Henry
James Jnr, Ellen Mary (front) Irene (with her teddy Aloysius)!
As a point of
interest, we mentioned previously that the medal which triggered out interest
had been awarded to Blanche Everett but nothing could be found about the
circumstances of the award. It transpires that Blanche was also known as May
and we can report that at the same ceremony as James, (May) Blanche Everett,
Guard-Instructor of the 2nd Tottenham (listed as May Everett of the
1st Tottenham in the 1920 Year Book) was awarded a bronze medal and
certificate for “diving fully dressed
into the swimming baths and rescuing a woman in grave danger of drowning.”