Our History
It all started with shipwrecks
The Royal Humane Society of New South Wales started life as the National Shipwreck Relief and Humane Society of New South Wales in 1877 in response to community concern about the loss of ships and courageous mariners in the dangerous shipping trade.
From the earliest days of settlement coastal towns and cities depended on the sea for their very survival. Clippers, windjammers, steamers, paddle steamers and small coastal vessels were wrecked in their thousands off Australia’s rocky coastline, often in furious gales, on uncharted reefs or on sandbars at the entrance to coastal river ports and pounded to pieces in the surf. Others simply disappeared at sea with all hands.
By 1877 the citizens of Sydney despaired at the loss of lives at sea, not to mention valuable cargo. Every week at least two vessels were wrecked around Australia.
The paddle steamer Yarra Yarra in Darling Harbour, Sydney, in 1871
The wreck of the paddle steamer Yarra Yarra
The loss of the paddle steamer Yarra Yarra off Newcastle one night in 1877 in a howling gale, resulted in the death of all 17 hands. A public meeting was called four days later in Sydney at which concerned citizens insisted that something be done to assist the destitute widows and orphans of the brave mariners who had lost their lives with no government or community services to ease the suffering of their families.
The Society’s humane, charitable mission
Immediately after the meeting, four shipowners established the National Shipwreck Relief and Humane Society of NSW with the support of the State government, Sydney’s Lord Mayor and community leaders. The Society’s humane mission was twofold:
· To provide charitable ‘relief’ for widows and orphans, injured and sick mariners and injured passengers.
· To honour the bravery of seamen and citizens who risked their lives to save others in shipwrecks and other dangerous circumstances.
The word humane was incorporated in the Society’s name when it was founded.
It means:
Having compassion for the suffering of others and taking action to relieve their distress.
Funding the Society’s mission
For the Society to succeed it needed more than the public donations alone. The founders prudently established it as a business selling life insurance to mariners, the profits from which were used to provide the required ‘relief to their widows and orphans’ and to mariners themselves if they were sick or injured.
This business model was both popular and financially successful and for more than 90 years the Society traded profitably until it ceased its commercial operations in 1967 when seafaring had become a safe calling.
Between 1877 and 1914 more than 1,500 mariners took out insurance and around 100 donors contributed to its annual crowdfunding appeal. Each year its trading surplus was banked in a term deposit account to earn interest. From the annual accounts, we know that the average interest rate of the day was between 4.5 and 6 per cent.
Early payouts
The widows of the officers of the Yarra Yarra, Captain Summerbell and William Millett, the Mate, were each paid the equivalent of $340,000 (in equivalent 2024 dollars) in charitable ‘relief’ and the widows of three other members of the crew were each paid the equivalent of $135,000. (in 2024 dollars).
A popular institution
The Society’s annual general meetings were big occasions. In 1913 the Sydney Town Hall was decorated and packed with ‘an immense audience’ of more than 3,000 mariners and wharf workers in addition to their families and friends. A band and choir performed patriotic music and popular songs, bravery awards were presented to cheers and applause and children who received awards were carried in on the shoulders of seamen.
The Governor of NSW, The Honourable Sir Gerald Strickland presided and made a stirring speech which was greeted with loud cheers and applause. After the ceremony, everyone was treated to refreshments donated by Messrs Dewar and Sons, distillers, and Tooth and Co., brewers.
Humane ‘relief’
The Society’s minute books are housed in the State Library of New South Wales and reveal that the Committee went out of its way to find the most humane outcome for every widow’s insurance claim. These women were usually set up with an income for life by converting the family home into a boarding house or, if they already had an income, relieving them of debt by paying off the mortgage on the family home.
Injured mariners were also treated humanely, whether they were insured or not. They were given hospital treatment and terminally ill seamen were shipped home to be with their families.
Royal patronage
In 1902 the King of England Edward VII gave royal consent for the name to be changed to the Royal Shipwreck Relief and Humane Society of New South Wales.
The Society continued its life insurance business for eighty years until 1967, when it ceased its commercial operations and continued its bravery mission as The Royal Humane Society of NSW.
Honouring bravery
From its inception in 1877, the Society awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals, Certificates of Merit and Letters of Commendation to residents of New South Wales who bravely put their lives on the line to save others in life-threatening situations. Since 1877 it has conferred over 6,000 awards and continues to do so today.
1930s art deco certificate design
The Spirit of Bravery
The spirit of bravery inspires the Society’s mission. The image in the 1895 design for the first Certificate of Merit embodies:
“The allegorical figure of a woman, gracious and resolute who typifies the Society and its work. Against a background of angry grey-green sea a ship with rent sails and shattered masts is struggling in the surf. Standing firmly above the surging ocean on solid rock the woman’s right hand rests on the head of a child she has rescued, and she stretches forth her left hand with a laurel wreath to honour the brave.”
The first Gold Medals
The first Gold Medals were presented to four Italian, French and Norwegian seamen, who on 28th December 1882, in a small boat, rowed through a heavy and dangerous sea to the steamer SS New England wrecked on the offshore bar of the Clarence River. They succeeded in rescuing the lives of eleven people. In the words of Captain Francis Hixson R.N. a Committee member and President of the Marine Board, as he presented their medals:
“The strength and skill which these intrepid hearts threw into their work of deliverance must have been great indeed.
Through all their mighty task they showed a dogged, persevering earnestness, strength, energy and bravery such as, I am proud to say … peculiar to that from which this great colony has sprung.”
The first Police award
The first Police officer to receive an award was Constable Frederick Leopold Bowden, who was presented with a Silver Medal for his actions on 31st August 1894:
“While on duty at Circular Quay shortly after midnight he observed a man staggering along the wharf and shortly afterwards stumble and fall over the edge into the water, striking his head against the brig “Amy” lying at the Quay.
With great promptitude and courage Bowden at once jumped in and succeeded in grasping the drowning man, who (a line being thrown from the “Amy”) was hauled out of the water with his rescuer.”
Early children’s awards
In the 1800s and early 1900s, children were often sent out to play while their mothers did the housework, the oldest taking care of their siblings. If one fell into a waterway the oldest would often plunge in to support them until an adult arrived.
In 1905 Harriet Edwards, aged 11, was awarded a Silver Medal when she was walking through the bush in charge of a younger girl:
“When she observed a brown snake approaching the child and almost within reach. She at once ran to save the infant putting both her arms around her, and in doing so was bitten by the snake on the wrist.
The bite was scarified as quickly as possible and after the usual remedies had been applied by a medical man the little girl survived.”
First award to a senior
The first senior to receive an award was Thomas James Daley, who in 1928 at the age of 68:
“Saved a little girl from drowning at Leichhardt on 1st November 1920. Daley, who was in ill health, saw the child in water about 8 feet deep, and immediately went to her rescue, bringing the girl to safety.”