| Gallantry |
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Gallantry | ||
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Awards for Gallantry
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Sydney William Padfield |
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Edward Medal | |||
| Date: | 27 Feb 1931 | ||
| Colliery: | Tilmanstone Colliery, Kent | ||
| Occupation: | |||
Whitehall, June 1, 1931.
His Majesty The King has been graciously pleased to award the Edward Medal to Sydney William Padfield in recognition of his gallantry in the following circumstances:—
At about 4 o'clock on the afternoon of the 27th February, 1931, two youths, William Gazard and Frederick Crofts were waiting in a junction on an auxiliary haulage roadway of the Tilmanstone Colliery, Kent, for a train of empty tubs to pass down the roadway. As the train came down the front tub ran off the rails and crashed into the iron girders supporting the roof, knocking down five of them. Part of the roof collapsed and Gazard was pinned down by a falling girder. In response to a call for assistance from Crofts, who escaped unhurt, Padfield and others ran to the spot and, after removing some of the debris, were about to commence timbering the place to make it safe when they heard a cry from Gazard that he was being suffocated. Padfield promptly got down among the fallen debris, squeezed himself under the girder, and succeeded in raising Gazard's face, which was being pressed into the loose dirt on the ground. Padneld remained crouched in a small place under a heap of rubbish, which was supported by two props, and while protecting Gazard's face from the falling debris began to remove the rubbish from beneath him, while other men propped up one large stone and the girder with bricks until it was possible to release Gazard. This took about half-an-hour and Gazard was unable to help himself in any way as his spine was dislocated.
In carrying out this work Padfield was in imminent danger of being buried by a further collapse of the roof; two further falls actually took place and the whole roof might have fallen in at any moment. If this had happened, Padfield would have had no chance of getting away in safety.
Source: London Gazette (12 Jun 1931)
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