b. 01/04/1884 Bayswater, London. d. 17/06/1950 Rochford, Essex.
DATE OF AM ACTION: 01/07/1913 Aldersgate Street Station, London.
Herbert F Ewington AM
Herbert was born in Bayswater, London on 1st April 1884, the son of Edwin and Jane Mary Ewington (nee Appleton). He had a brother Horace and a sister Mabel. In civilian life was employed as a waiter by Spiers and Pond Restaurant, London, whilst also playing a leading role on the Committee of the Hackney Workhouse. On 15th August 1909 he married Florrie Trent at St Mark’s, Dalston, and they had a son, Edwin Herbert in 1915. He was presented with his Albert Medal in Gold by H.M. King George V at Buckingham Palace on 16 December 1913, and subsequently served during the Great War in the Army Ordnance Corps. He had a history of gallantry as prior to his AM action, he had saved a man from drowning at Brighton, for which he received a gold watch and chain. He died at Rochford, Essex in June 1950, aged 66.
AM CITATION:
On the 1st of July last a fitter in the employment of the Metropolitan Railway, while crossing the permanent way at Aldersgate Street Station, slipped and fell across a live electric rail. Whilst a porter was fetching the insulating rubber gloves—without which it is considered very dangerous to touch anyone who is in contact with a live rail—a train was seen entering the Station on the same line. At that moment Ewington jumped on to the line and managed to pull the man’s leg clear of the rail, though he received several shocks in doing so; and he succeeded in getting the injured man into safety between the two sets of rails before the train was pulled up a few feet away. The danger was increased by the fact that another train was approaching in the opposite direction. Had it not been for Ewington’s exceptional bravery, there is little doubt that the fitter, who was unable to release himself, and whose leg was badly burned, would have lost his life.
BURIAL LOCATION: UNKNOWN.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: PRIVATELY HELD. SOLD AT DNW IN DECEMBER 2016 FOR £11,000
Acknowledgement:
Dix Noonan Webb – Images of Herbert Ewington AM and his Albert Medal.