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Auction: 23001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 150

Three: Able Seaman & Quartermaster R. Martins, Merchant Navy, who whilst a civilian Fireman was decorated for saving a Scottish terrier from a house fire in Salcombe in 1935

British War and Mercantile Marine War Medals (Robert Martins.); National Canine Defence League, Silver Medal, the reverse engraved 'To Robert Martin [sic] for Saving a Dog 1935', good very fine (3)

Robert Martins was born at Salcombe on 8 December 1896. A Merchant Seaman by trade, with the outbreak of the Great War he enlisted in the Coldstream Guards on 29 August 1914. He was discharged medically unfit just two months later on account of severe attacks of malaria, contracted during his time in Java with the Merchant Navy - thus he returned to sea during the conflict.

He showed superb bravery in his native Salcombe in 1935:

'A red glare reflected through the tree was the first alarm signal. Mr W. G. Cook of Whinfield, a house higher up the hill from Fairmount saw it early yesterday morning and thought it was a bonfire. The growing intensity of the light and an ominous crackling, accompanied by clouds of smoke warned him that it was a serious fire. He telephoned Con. Honeywell who is the fire officer of Salcombe.

Almost simultaneously Mrs Newman, who was sleeping in a room on the upper floor was awakened by the fire and called her daughter just as part of the tiled roof crashed down, the flames having already gained a hold on two of the upper rooms.

Mrs Baldwin's first thought was for her mother. Aided by Mr Baldwin she carried her mother, who is an invalid, down the stairs and placed her in the care of neighbours, and then telephoned for the police.

The siren was sounded at 5:51am and within a quarter of an hour the Salcombe Fire Brigade, in the charge of Mr A. Lapthorn Junior, was pumping water from a hydrant on the waterfront, hoses stretching up the hillside. Owing to the steepness of the cliff on which the house was situated, it was impossible to play the hoses on the fire from the ground level, and firemen carried their hoses up the hill between the tree and fought the flames through the roof of the house. To prevent flames setting fire to the undergrowth and communicating the blaze to neighbouring houses, firemen deluged the trees with water.

By this time the twelve rooms in the house were full of flames, and tiles showered down from the roof and verandas into the garden. Mr T. Cheeseman, who is employed by Mr Baldwin as a boatman and gardener, succeeded in salvaging some of the silver, and books from the library were retrieved by the firemen and thrown out on to the terraces.

Some of the occupants clothing was thrown out from the upper rooms, but became ignited by the falling timber and hot tiles.
At this stage a dog was heard barking in the upper part of the house. There was difficulty in locating the animal's cries above the roar of the flames, but it was found the dog, Mr Baldwin's Scotch terrier, had been trapped in the bathroom. Mr Robert Martin, a member of Salcombe Sailing Club, clambered on to the roof and lowered himself on the bathroom window-sill. He smashed the glass, cutting his hand badly in doing so, entered the room through the smoke, and returned with the dog in his arms, to the cheers of the crowd.

When the fire had gained a hold on the whole house, the heat was so intense that leadwork on the building melted. Sergt Redwood, Con. Honeywell and Con. Sedgemore kept the crowd back from the danger zone where timbers and slates were crashing to the ground.

It was 9am before the fire was under control and by that time only the fabric remained, ceilings, floors and staircases having collapsed and beds and furniture crashed from upper floors to the ground, and the roof was completely demolished.

Even at nightfall yesterday the building was wreathed in clouds of steam, where the smouldering timbers subsided into pools of water. Telephone wires attached to the outer wall were, however, still unbroken and in the sitting-room pictures, slightly charred, remained on the walls amid the debris of broken beds, twisted gas pipes and derelict furniture.

The origin of the fire in unknown. It started in a spare room on the upper floor next to that occupied by Mrs Newman.'

Martins was duly rewarded with his Silver Medal and died at Kingsbridge in 1988; sold together with copied research.

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Sold for
£480

Starting price
£170