GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
George Flood enacted the above cited deeds at 125 Towson Road, near Anfield, on the night of 3-4 May 1941, when much of the street was demolished by a parachute mine. The occupants of No. 125 - Mr. and Mrs. O’Neill - had eight children, six of whom were resident when disaster struck. Somehow the parents and two of the children escaped unscathed, but two of the other children were killed outright. That left Kathleen, aged 14 months, and George, aged 2 years and six months, trapped in the wreckage, both of whom were rescued by Flood. An accompanying copy of eye-witness statements makes compelling reading, one Senior Air Raid Warden stating:
‘During the whole time that Flood was engaged rescuing these two children, he was in constant danger of being killed by collapsing debris, and although he was aware that a high leaning wall might fall any minute, and the fact that he was warned of the danger under which he was working, Flood showed no concern for his own safety and risked his life the whole of the time, until he was exhausted and removed to hospital.’
Such was the ferocity of the Luftwaffe’s assault on Liverpool on the night of 3-4 May 1941 that it became known as the ‘great fire blitz’. Within two and half hours 60 fires were ranging inside the city and 56 in the suburbs, placing unprecedented pressure on the rescue services. Commander Firebrace, Inspector-in-Chief of Liverpool’s Fire Services - a tough veteran who lived up to his apt name - later recalled how one of his officers collapsed in the Control Room without any warning, a consequence of sheer mental and physical exhaustion. It’s an incident which perhaps highlights the extraordinary stamina - and courage - of George Flood, working as he did for nine hours under appalling conditions amidst the rubble of Towson Road.
105
A K.P.M. pair awarded to Gerald Sidney Wilson, C.S.I., Inspector-General of Police, Bombay Presidency, who once arrested Mahatma Gandhi
KING’S POLICE MEDAL, G.V.R., 1st issue (Gerald Sidney Wilson, Dep. Commr. Port of Bombay Pol.); CORONATION 1911, unnamed as issued, mounted as worn, together with two ribbon bars, one with C.S.I. ribbon, extremely fine (2)
£600-800
K.P.M. London Gazette 1 January 1918: ‘Gerald Sidney Wilson, Esq., Deputy Commissioner of Police for the Port of Bombay.’ C.S.I. London Gazette 3 June 1931: ‘Gerald Sidney Wilson, Esq., Indian Police Service, Commissioner of Police, Bombay.’
Gerald Sidney Wilson was born in 1880, son of Sidney Wilson, late of H.E.I.C.’s Navy. He was educated at Tonbridge and overseas, and passed into the Indian Police Service in 1901, being posted to the Bombay Presidency. He held appointments of Assistant and District Superintendent of Police up to 1912; Personal Assistant to Inspector-General of Police, 1912-14; Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bombay City, 1914-18; Principal, Police Training School, 1920-21; Deputy Inspector-General of Police, 1921-28; Officiating Inspector-General of Police, Bombay Presidency, 1928-29; Commissioner of Police, Bombay City, 1930-32; Inspector-General of Police, Bombay Presidency, 1932-34; retired, 1934. Civilian attached General Staff, War Office, September 1939-43; Assistant Divisional Food Officer (Enforcement) N.W. Division, 1943-44. He died on 5 February 1960.
The following incident was reported in The Guardian newspaper on Monday, 4 January 1932:
‘Gandhi was arrested at three o'clock this morning at his Bombay residence, Manibhuwan, the police having arrived only a few moments previously. The actual arrest was carried out by the Police Commissioner, Mr. Wilson, who was accompanied by the deputy Commissioner, Khan Bahadur Pettigara, and four other officers.
As soon as the police were sighted there was a flutter, and everybody tried to secure access to Gandhi's tent, but they were promptly prevented. Gandhi was immediately awakened, and as he was observing his usual silence when he saw the Police Commissioner he simply smiled at him. The Police Commissioner immediately handed over the warrant for his arrest to Gandhi, who, after quickly reading it through, handed it back again.
The warrant for Gandhi's arrest merely says that he is being arrested "for good and sufficient reasons." Then followed some very touching scenes of farewell in which all the members of Gandhi's ashram participated. The Commissioner allowed Mr. Gandhi half an hour in which to exchange parting greetings with his followers. Quick telephone calls were put through to as many places as possible to warn Congressmen who proposed to visit Manibhuwan to confer with their leader before his arrest.
Except for the party of six police officials there were no other policemen at Manibhuwan at the time of the arrest, but immediately after the arrest had been effected batches of policemen armed with lathis sprang up at all important crossroads with a view to preventing all demonstrations or untoward incidents. Most of the women of Gandhi's party wept bitterly as he left, whilst his wife, also in tears, begged the Police Commissioner to take her away with her husband. Gandhi himself, however, appeared to be in the best of spirits, his face being wreathed in smiles. A doctor is accompanying Gandhi to Yerwada Gaol.’
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