A good King’s Police Medal, GVR, coinage bust awarded to Police Constable William Jessiman, Y Division, Metropolitan Police who having joined on 29th Mary 1905 would be awarded the King’s Police Medal for Gallantry in the London Gazette of 3rd January 1911 for stopping a runaway horse and trap in which he seized the rains and was himself dragged 20 to 30 years before the horse came to a standstill. He was severely injured during the act, and would removed to a hospital on an ambulance.
King’s Police Medal, GVR, coinage bust; (WILLIAM JESSIMAN. CONST. METROPOLITAN POLICE.) In fitted case of issue.
Condition: some scuffing to box, Nearly Extremely Fine
William Jessiman joined the Metropolitan Police on 29th May 1905 as a Constable with Y Division at Tottenham with the Warrant Number 91872. He would retire from Y Division on 2nd June 1930, and died on 31st January 1948.
Jessiman was awarded the King’s Police Medal for Gallantry in the London Gazette of 3rd January 1911, an article in the Times of 5th August 1910 having covered the act:
‘At Bow Street Police Court yesterday Sir Albert de Rutzen presented Police Constable William Jessiman, 801Y, with a cheque for £10 as a reward for an act of bravery. On June 30 a Miss Quick was driving a horse attached to a trap in the Hornsey Road when the animal suddenly took fright and bolted. Miss Quick at once attempted to alight from the trap, but in doing so caught her skirt in the step. She was being dragged along the ground when the constable ran forward and seized the reins. He was knocked down by one of the wheels of the trap and was himself dragged along the ground for 20 to 30 yards before the horse came to a standstill. Both the Constable and Miss Quick were then lying underneath the trap and were found to be severely injured, the constable having to be removed to hospital on an ambulance’
The act would be similarly noted in the Police Review and Parade Gossip of 6th January 1911.
