b. 26/06/1878 Lamarsh, Essex. d. 20/09/1952 East Ham, Essex.
DATE OF EM ACTION: 23/10/1920 Stratford Station, East London.
George E R Pilgrim EM
George was one of eleven children born to William and Sarah Ann Pilgrim. His childhood was spent in Lamarsh, Essex. From a young age he became an employee of the Great Eastern Railway as a porter, and in 1906, he married Eleanor, and they had a son, Sidney Robert William Pilgrim. Little is known about his life after the incident at Stratford Station. He died on 20th September 1952 at East Ham Hospital, Essex, aged 74.
EM CITATION:
On October 23rd, 1920, while a number of passengers were waiting at Stratford Station on the Great Eastern Railway for a train to Liverpool Street, it became known that the earliest train would start from another platform and many of them, instead of using the subway, proceeded to cross the metals. Three sets of rails separated the platforms, and among the last to cross was a woman accompanied by her child. As she was crossing the centre track, she saw an express train approaching, and thinking that the train was going straight through the station on the centre line of the rails, she rushed across to the edge of the platform where she thought she would be safe. The train, however, did not go through, but was diverted at the points, and came down the line of rails on which the woman was standing, as it was intended to stop at the platform alongside Pilgrim, a railway porter in the service of the Great Eastern Railway, was on the platform and’ realised the dangerous situation of the woman and child. The woman, too, saw the danger, but became terrified and clung to the edge of the platform. The train reached a point about 50 yards from the woman when Pilgrim leapt from the platform on the line and dragged the woman and child, by mainforce, across the permanent way and out of danger. The driver of the train applied his brakes with such force that the train parted in the middle, and the engine was not brought to a standstill until it had reached a spot ten yards past the place where the woman hadbeen clinging to the platform. All three persons concerned had a very narrow escape from death, or, at any rate, severe injury. Pilgrim fully realised the danger and, disregarding any consequences to himself, jumped literally in front of the engine and dragged away the stupefied woman and her little girl. But for his prompt and courageous action they could not possibly have escaped.
BURIAL LOCATION: UNKNOWN.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.
