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Auction: 9024 - The Property of a Gentleman Orders, Decorations and Campaign Medals
Lot: 699

Edward Medal, (Industry), G.V.R., silver, 1st obverse, 2nd type reverse (Steven Arthur Rubythorn), extremely fine and scarce, mounted as originally worn Estimate £ 800-1,200 E.M. London Gazette 26.3.1918 Steven Arthur Rubythorn, Foreman Filler; joint citation with Alfred Hamilton, Foreman; John Harrison, in charge of steam pressures; Ernest Charles Allen, Fitter; and Harry Butcher, Fireman: ´´On the 5th October, 1917, an accident occurred at the National Shell Filling Factory. A large shell exploded in the Melt House, killing two men and filling the place with thick smoke. At the time of the explosion more than 4,000 filled shells were in the Melt House, and several trucks of shells caught fire. Regardless of the great danger to which they were exposed, the men, whose names are given above, seized extinguishers, and, rushing through the smoke, played them on the fire, and, with the help of other men, the fire was put out. By their presence of mind and courage these men probably averted a great disaster.´´ Heroic Endeavour by D.V. Henderson, G.M., offers further incite, ´´On 5 October 1917 a potentially disastrous explosion occurred in the Melt House of the National Shell Filling Factory at Chilwell, Nottinghamshire. At 3.25am a 12-inch H.E. shell exploded enveloping the building in thick smoke and setting several other buildings on fire. Two men were killed, four were injured and a splinter weighing over one hundred pounds travelled half a mile. At the time over four thousand one hundred shells (calibres 6-inch to 15-inch) were on the floor of the Melt House only nine hundred being closed at the fuze hole.´´

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£1,700