Watch List notes:

Victorian Humane Society silver medal, 1st type, edge impressed 'Charles Barkwith 10 December 1874', with pin back mount on reverse. Part of mount broken, very fine and rare.

'Barkwith was 19 years of age, and working as a miner. Some time ago, a number of boys had gone to bathe in a dam off Arnold Street (Sandhurst). None of them were able to swim, and Sydney Hayden, sixteen years of age, suddenly got out of his depth, and disappeared in 15ft or 16ft of water. Barkwith heard their cries for help three hundred yards away, and running down to the dam plunged into the water with his clothes on, finding Hayden in 16ft of water. The drowning boy clutched him by the neck and so tenaciously did he hold that both were nearly drowned, and it was only owing to the exertions of Barkwith that both were eventually saved.' Together with two photocpy pages of research.
($760-850)