Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 5).djvu/368

"The medal of the Royal Humane Society."

ew Institutions appeal more strongly to popular sympathy than the Royal Humane Society. The rewards which it bestows upon its members, who are distinguished for a self-forgetting bravery which thrills the blood to read of, are merely the outward tokens of admiration which is felt by every heart. Those members include persons of all ranks of life: men, women, and children; nay, even animals are not excepted, and a dog wore the medal with conscious pride. We have selected the following examples out of thousands, not because they are more deserving of admiration than the rest, but because they are fair specimens of the acts of self-devotion which have won the medals of the Society in recent years.

Captain James de Houghton.
From a Photograph.

"On Thursday, the 10th September, 1874, at 9.30 p.m., in the gateway between the outer and inner harbour at Lowestoft, Suffolk, James Dorling fell overboard frem the yacht Dart whilst she was making for the inner harbour in a strong half-flood tideway, the night very dark, blowing and raining hard, and going about five and a half knots. Lieutenant (now Captain) J. de Hoghton, 10th Foot, jumped overboard, swam to Dorling, and supported him in the water for about a quarter of an hour in the tideway, between narrow high pilework, without crossbeams or side chains to lay hold of, and the head of the pilework 12ft. or 15ft. above the water—the yacht being carried away into the inner harbour, and no other vessel or boat in the gateway to lend assistance; the darkness prevented any immediate help being obtained from the shore. The length of the gateway was about 330 yards, width 15 to 20 yards, depth 10ft. to 15ft. Lieutenant de Hoghton and Dorling were ultimately drawn up the pilework by ropes from the shore."

"On a dark night, 6th April, 1877, H.M.S. Immortalité was under sail, going four-and-a-half knots before the wind, the sea rough for swimming, and abounding with sharks, when T. E. Hocken, O.S., fell overboard. Sub-Lieut. R. A. F. Montgomerie, R.A., jumped overboard from the bridge, a height of