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	Gallantry		Gallantry

	Charles Wilcox
	Edward Medal
	Date:	23 Aug 1949
	Colliery:	Birmingham
	Occupation:	Painter

 

Whitehall, September 24, 1949.

The King has been pleased to award the Edward Medal to Charles Wilcox in recognition of his gallantry in the following circumstances:—

On Tuesday, 23rd August, 1949, Mr. Charles Wilcox (aged 30), a painter employed by Birmingham Corporation, was engaged with other men in painting a Council House building in the centre of the city.

One of the other painters, Alfred Leslie Burrows (aged 21) mounted a ladder to begin painting an exterior window on the third flour of the building, and at the top of the ladder, about forty-five feet above the street, climbed on to an arched sill about eighteen inches in width which was sited below the window. He then found that the window was bricked up from the inside and that there was nothing for him to hold to enable him to retain his balance. He turned round to return to the ladder but could not see it, became frightened, and crouched down trying to retain his balance on the ledge.

The foreman painter saw Burrows' predicament and sent another painter to his assistance but this man returned to the ground after supporting Burrows for a few minutes. Charles Wilcox then climbed the ladder to assist Burrows and by kneeling on a flat piece of masonry, some eighteen inches square, at the end of the arch was able to support the other man who was suffering from severe shock. Mr. Wilcox stayed in this position for forty-five minutes until the Fire Brigade arrived and Burrows who had become unconscious was brought to the ground, by a fireman, in a safely belt which Wilcox strapped upon him.

During the period that Mr. Wilcox was on the ledge with Burrows he was in considerable danger of falling had the other man kicked out or made any violent movement.

Source: London Gazette (30 Sep 1949)

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