Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Saturday 19 September 1936, page 17


GALLANTRY RECOGNISED

HUMANE SOCIETY

AWARDS

Value of Swimming

After having presented the Victorian awards of the Royal Humane Society in the Assembly Hall last night, His Excel- lency the Governor-General (Lord Gow-rie) said that it was of vital importance that every man, woman, and child should learn to swim.

"Having heard to-night of the lives that have been risked or lost in the attempted rescue of drowning persons," he said, " let us sound a note of warning to indiscreet and foolhardy bathers not to take risks by which they imperil not only their own lives but those of gallant men and women who go to rescue them."

Mr. Justice Martin, who moved a mo-tion that the importance and practical use-fulness of the Royal Humane Society should be recognised throughout the Com-monwealth, said - "It is sometimes said that the youth of to-day is decadent. We who have seen these heroic people decor-ated to-night know that that is absurd. The youth of this generation is as courage-ous and self-sacrificing as that of any

other."

As he was suffering from the effects of a slight accident, the president (Mr. Thomas Brentnall) was unable to attend. This was greatly regretted, as it was the occasion of his 40th anniversary as a director of the society, of which he has been president for 11 years. His presi- dential address, read by the senior vice-president (Mr. Rupert de C. Wilks), con-tained a tribute to the men of Glen Wills who went in search of the skiers lost on the Bogong High Plans. It stated that swimming lessons should be compul-sory in the curriculum of State schools.

The awards were as follows:-

Clarke Silver Medal - George Robbie McDonald (Newstead)

Bronze Medals - Winifred Ellen Naylor (An-nuello), Anthony Shippen (Albert Park), Colin McLellan (Sydney), Marshall Phillip Vernon (Camberwell), Charles Robinson Coleman (Dan-denong), Charles Simmonds (Port Melbourne)

Certificates of Merit - Anthony James Gannan (Rochester), John Joseph Cullen (North Melbourne), James McNeilly eight years old (Kew), Peter Finch (Melbourne), John Blair Hutchinson (Hawthorn), Bernard Collins (Tallangatta), Thomas Maddigan (Essendon),

Roy Ernest Matchett (Bunyip), Ernest William Austin (Black Lead), William Frederick Bar-

tholomew (Richmond), Wilbur George Cornish (Mathoura), Joyce Freinick (Brunswick), Henry Hellings 12 years old (Preston), Richard Dermondy (Yabba North), Malcolm Mclntyre (Hamilton), Robert Howard (Dandenong),

Samuel Edward Black (Melbourne), Hector Keith Howell (Dandenong), David Francis Wise (Coldstream), Hazel Allen (Liparoo).

Recorded in the archives (a list of those who lost their lives in attempting to save the lives of others) - Harry Tye (Sey-mour), William Keith Blake, aged 14 years (Bowen Vale); Victor Bell, aged 13 years (Ivanhoe); John Richard Web-ster, aged 11 years (WA); Allan William

Painton (T).