bronze medal

A Widow's Bequest - During a service in the war, on the 26th October, 1941, the coxswain of the Cromer life-boat, and four of his crew were washed overboard. All five were picked up. The last of them was Edward Walter Allen. He was found floating unconscious, his mouth under water. The others revived him. He spoke a few words, tried to sit up, then collapsed and died. His widow was pensioned, as if her husband had been a sailor, soldier or airman, killed in action. Mrs Allen herself died in December 1950. She had been, her executors wrote, 'always most grateful for her pension' and she left half the value of her cottage to the Institution through its Cromer branch. The Bronze medal with its two clasps, and the two vellums inscribed with the thanks of the Institution, which her husband had won for gallantry, and the three vellums which accompanied the awards of the bronze medal and the clasps, have been presented to the Norwich Castle Museum.