Life-saving PC to sell 'rare' bravery medal set

A police officer who risked his own life to rescue a vulnerable woman from a bridge nearly 30 years ago is selling the medals he received for his bravery.

Three Royal Humane Society (RHS) awards, presented to former Avon and Somerset Police officer PC Ian Standerwick, are expected to fetch between £6,000 and £8,000 when they are auctioned next month.

Standerwick was honoured after a dramatic rescue next to the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol on 8 September 1997.

It is thought to be the only time the RHS has presented all three medals for a single rescue, and Standerwick said he wants them to go to someone who "will ensure my award is remembered and continues through time".

Standerwick and PC Steven Date were called to help a 37-year-old woman, who was standing and swaying backwards and forwards on a narrow ledge on the outside of the suspension bridge, about 200 feet above the Avon Gorge.

Standerwick got onto the ledge and, as the woman began to fall, he lunged forward, grabbed her shoulder and forced her back against the stonework.

In doing so, he lost his own balance and was left clinging to the bridge.

Date then rushed to help, pulling both to safety.

In his statement at the time, Date said: "I heard Police Constable Standerwick shout 'Steve – grab me!' I looked over the edge and saw him balancing on one leg."

The RHS is a charity that recognises acts of civilian bravery, and the rescue initially earned Standerwick its Bronze Medal.

Following an inspection of the scene, the RHS upgraded the award to a Silver Medal.

Standerwick was later presented with the prestigious Stanhope Gold Medal, awarded for the most outstanding life-saving act recognised by the RHS that year.

Standerwick is believed to be the only person to have received all three of the RHS’s medals for the same rescue, making them exceptionally rare.

The medals go on sale at Noonans auctioneers in Mayfair, London, on 4 November.

Christopher Mellor-Hill, from Noonans, said the Gold Stanhope medal was "the ultimate accolade in the world of life-saving".

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