Search is on for Mull hero’s history
Standing at Tobermory harbour, Willie Hume holds the silver pocket watch presented by the Andrew Carnegie Hero Fund Trust to his seaman grandfather James for saving the life of a drowning nine-year- old child in 1911. The retired Mull firefighter is seeking the public’s help to find more information about James’s many heroic acts.
I’m extremely proud of what he did. He risked his life to save a boy’s life” Willie Hume Retired Mull firefighter
A RETIRED fireman from Mull is seeking information on the heroism of his seaman grandfather, James Hume, who was awarded a pocket watch from the Carnegie Hero Trust Fund for saving the life of a drowning child.
Willie Hume discovered his grandfather, James Sutherland Miller Hume, had been a lifesaving hero via a citation from the Carnegie Hero Fund Trust, collected by his father Walter.
The citation, for case number 739, records the event: ‘James Hume, mercantile marine officer, on home leave after a worldwide voyage to Australia and New Zealand, on the sailing vessel Hinemoa, at the tender age of 20 years, then living with his parents at 13 Lindsay Road, Leith, did, on August 16, 1911, secure and rescue a child, nine years of age, from drowning, after having fallen into Newhaven Harbour … a magnetic attraction to all youngsters, able to swim or otherwise.’
The trust deemed Hume’s act of valour so exceptional that it merited not just the normal medal but a silver watch, inscribed with the words: ‘ He serves God best who most nobly serves humanity.’
The trust’s committee presented the pocket watch to Hume in Leith Town Hall, ‘ with due recognition to an outstanding feat of heroism to a local Newhaven man, in putting his own life in danger to that of saving the life of an unknown person, placed in a perilous predicament of being within moments of losing his life through drowning’.
But the heroic acts did not end there, for James Hume, who served for 40 years as a Firth of Forth pilot. A further citation reads that James was ‘ presented with several certificates from the Royal Humane Society for saving the life of a ship’s captain from drowning, in Leith Docks, and for rescuing nine men from a disabled converted lifeboat, in stormy conditions, at the Gunnet Ledge rocks, off Inchkeith’.
The watch, in daily use by James over his entire career, was said to give ‘ faultless service and accurate timekeeping’, and was inherited by his son, Walter – Willie’s late father.
‘ Who was the rescued boy, and who were the nine Leith men?’ wondered Walter. Willie has now picked up the mystery, and is keen to solve it.
Willie, a 62-year- old retired firefighter who was born and bred in Oban but now lives in Tobermory, said: ‘I am extremely proud because of what he did. He risked his life to save a boy’s life.’
In 1886, the Scottish steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the world, heard of the death of a Dunfermline boy who drowned in an heroic attempt to rescue a young swimmer in difficulties in Dunfermline’s town loch.
Carnegie contributed to a fund to erect a memorial, inscribed by his words: ‘ The false heroes of barbarous man are those who can only boast of the destruction of their fellows. The true heroes of civilisation are those alone who save or greatly serve them. Young Hunter was one of those and deserves an enduring monument.’
The Carnegie Hero Fund Trust was established in 1908 ‘to recognise civilian heroism and give financial assistance, where necessary, to people who have been injured or to the dependants of people who have been killed in attempting to save another human life in peaceful pursuits’.
If you have any information on James Hume’s heroic acts, contact us at The Oban Times via sneil@obantimes.co.uk.