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Auction: 20002 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Space Exploration
Lot: 525

The Royal Humane Society silver Medal awarded to Sir C. C. Grundy

Royal Humane Society, small silver medal (successful), (Cuthbert C. Grundy, 29 July 1870) complete with silver ribbon buckle, edge bruise, otherwise extremely fine

R.H.S. Case 18,616:

‘3.30 p.m., Friday 29th July, 1870, Blawith Point, Grange-over-Sands, Morecambe Bay, ten to twelve feet water, strong current. John Birkbeck got out of his depth while bathing; his brother Vincent M. Birkbeck, seeing this, swam to his rescue. John Birkbeck thinking only of himself, clutched Vincent in such a manner as not only to prevent him from swimming, but also to drag him down and wellnigh strangle him; both were now being drawn by the current into the open, where the water ran with the speed of a river, V. M. Birkbeck being altogether under water, and John rising and sinking.

It was at this time that C. C. Grundy saw that the brothers were drowning, and went in to try to save them; he managed to separate them, and Vincent M. Birkbeck, who had sufficient strength to reach the shore, so much exhausted that he did not know how this was accomplished; Mr. Grundy succeeded in getting to land, and at the same time bringing John Birkbeck with him.’

Cuthbert Cartwright Grundy was educated at Stand Grammar School and Owens College, Victoria University. He held a huge interest in the arts and eventually was Knighted for his public and local service (London Gazette 12 August 1919, refers). An avid artist, his works are held in a number of national galleries. He was a Justice of the Peace for Lancaster, President of the Royal Cambrian Art Society, Vice-President of the Royal West of England Academy, besides being associated with the British Colonial Society of Artists, Royal Society of Miniature Painters and the Royal Art Societies of New South Wales, New Zealand and South Australia. Grundy made a plethora of donations to local charities in Bury, Blackpool and Manchester and estabished The Grundy Gallery with his brother in 1911. It remains to this day at the centre of of cultural and artistic life for over a century; sold together with copied research.

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Sold for
£300

Starting price
£170