Medal, Royal Humane Society of Australasia, Australia, 1922

Silver Medal awarded to Lawrence Thomson by the Royal Humane Society of Australasia for his act of bravery on 28 July 1922 (case number 3651). Thomson, of Orbost, Victoria, was a 19-year-old labourer. On the night of 28 July 1922 Ernest Gorden Wishart was undertaking rescue work in a heavy flood in the Snowy River. His boat capsized, and he was swept downstream. He became engangled in a barbed wire fence.

Thomson, 'hearing his cries, plunged into the flood, which was running fiercely. Struggling through the debris, he reached Wishart and held him up until assistance arrived. The rescue was effected under great difficulties and in darkness' (Royal Humane Society of Australasia Annual Report, 1923, p.28). An mounted and issued silver prize medal of the Society (39 mm diameter with purple ribbon) It features a female placing a wreath on the head of a kneeling male beneath the Southern Cross and provides the name of the winner, Lawrence Thomson and the date 28 7 22 on the reverse within a wreath.

This medal does not have the usual artist's names nor plants, it appears to be from a 20th century replacement for the original dies. Obverse: At centre, a female standing on left facing right placing a wreath on the head of a kneeling male beneath the Southern Cross, around, VIRTUTE PARATUM. Reverse: Around a wreath, ROYAL HUMANE SOCIETY OF AUSTRALASIA INSTD. A.D. 1874 within wreath, AWARDED TO LAWRENCE THOMSON / 22 . 7 . 22. Edge: Plain.