BRONZE MEDAL SERVICE AT WALTON AND FRINTON JANUARY 19TH. - WALTON AND FRINTON, ESSEX. In the early morning flares were seen burning about half a mile north of the pier at Walton, close to the beach. Asouth-easterly gale was blowing, with squalls of rain and snow ; the night was very dark ; a heavy sea was running dead on shore. The motor life-boat E.M.E.D. put off from her moorings at the end of the pier at five minutes past two, and in a quarter of an hour she found the barge Martha, of Rochester. The barge had anchored, but her anchor had not held, and she had gone ashore stern first.

There she lay in six feet of water, with the seas breaking right over her. Her crew of three men could be seen in the fore rigging. Handling the lifeboat very skilfully the coxswain brought her alongside the barge, and in spite of the high seas held her there long enough for the three men to jump aboard her from the barge’s rigging.

Then he brought her safely out of the breakers, undamaged, although in the shallow water her keel had struck the bottom three times. She was back at her station again just before three in the morning.

It was a skilful and courageous rescue, and the Institution made the following awards : To COXSWAIN THOMAS H. BLOOM, the bronze medal for gallantry, with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum; To THOMAS CLAUDE BROOKE, the motor-mechanic, the bronze medal for gallantry, with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum ; To the coxswain and each member of the crew a special reward of £2, in addition to the reward on the ordinary scale of £2 17s. 6d. ; standard rewards to crew and launchers, £19 12s. 6d. ; additional rewards to crew, £16 ; total rewards, £35 12s. 6d..