The Sun. — 1861-06-04 (London, England)

SOCIE2Y.  The 87th anniversary meeting of this institution was held yesterday at the Freemasons'-hall,--his Grace the Duke of Somerset, First Lord of the Admiralty, in the chair. Among others present were —Lord Henniker, Sir William Fraser, Sir Walter Stirling, Messrs. Montagu Gore, E. T. Baker, W. Hawes, the Rev. Prebendary Jackson, Drs. Baker, Hutchinson, &c. The chairman said that having had the honour of being selected to preside at this meeting, he felt the greatest pleasure in doing so, well knowing as he did the value of the institution. He then called upon the secretary, Mr. Lambton Young, to read the report. It stated that during the past year 156 cases, attended with risk to the lives of 187 persons had been brought under the notice of the society, and of the persons immersed 172 were successfully treated, the remaining 15 having been past recovery; there were also 27 cases of attempted suicide. During the same time the society had conferred as rewards for gallantry to those who risked their own lives to save the lives of others 24 honorary silver medals, 65 bronze ditto, 14 vellum and 16 parchment testimonials, besides 72 pecuniary rewards of various amounts. 68,792 persons had bathed in the Serpentine during the last 12 months at the hours appointed for morning and evening bathing, when the society's boats were in attendance, and 27 casualties had occurred, of which two were fatal, from not having been discovered until beyond recovery, and five persons were saved from committing suicide through the watchfulness and prompt attention of the society's boatmen. Last winter the estimated number of sliders and skaters on the ice in the parks and Kensington-gardens was 563,570, of whom 146 were rescued, by the appliances of the society, from a watery grave—viz., 15 in the Regent'spark, 51 in Kensington-gardens and Hydepark, and 80 in St. James's-park. Since the establishment of the society upwards of 30,000 lives, mostly in or near the metropolis, had been saved and restored to their country. The report concluded by stating that the society was founded to preserve from premature death persons apparently dead, not only from drowning, but from hanging, lightning, cold, heat, noxious vapours, apoplexy, or intoxication. The chairman then presented the medallions of the society to the following, accompanied in each instance by a few suitable remarks : —To Dr. Christian, the principal medical officer of the society, the gold medal, for his zealous and unwearied exertions during the last 15 years; the silver medal to Dr. W. H. Mackintosh, of the 10th Brigade Royal Artillery, for saving gunner James Murphy, who sank while bathing in about twelve or fourteen feet of water at the bottom of the cliffs under Fort George, Guernsey, on the 9th of July, 1859; to Mr. Pilbrow, third officer of the steamer Hindostan, for saving Major Ormsby, who accidentally fell from the gangway of the steamer Bengal while at anchor in the river Hooghly, near Calcutta, and was being rapidly carried away by the strong current of the river, on Sept. 22, 1859; to Mr. Aus in Cooper, second officer of the ship Agincourt, for saving Mr. S. Gardner, midshipman, who fell overboard, in Port Phillip, Australia, on March 26, 1860, the night at the time being very dark and tempestuous ; to a Brazilian sailor named Anastasio Romualdo, for saving a British seaman named Brown, who, being intoxicated, while in the act of stepping from a boat on board a steamer, fell into the water at Para, Brazils, on May 31, 1860; to Donald Urquhart, for saving five women out of a part of 12 persons, whose boat capsized in the Dornoch Frith, Sutherlandshire, on 19th August last; to Ensign Chute and Private Quigley, of the Bth Regiment, for saving an officer's servant who fell overboard the Clara troopship at Spithead on the 4th of September last ; to Dr. Marcus Dill, of Ballymena for saving a lunatic named Hammill who attempted suicide by jumping off the rocks into the sea at Portstewart on the 14th of September, 1860 ; to Captain Harding° for saving a boy who fell overboard from the ship Persian at sea on the 20th of July, 1860 ; and to Mr. Harton, medical student, for saving a woman, who attempted suicide by jumping off a bridge, a height of 30 feet, into the river Shannon, at Banagher, on the 29th of August last. The meeting was addressed by Lord Henniker, Sir W. Fraser, Mr. Montagu Gore, Mr. Baker, Mr. Pownall, the Rev. T. Jackson, and Mr. W. Hawes, and certain formal resolutions having been proposed and duly carried, a vote of thanks was passed to the chairman, and the proceedings terminated.