Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

Hospital Porter

Unit:

South Eastern Hospital, Emergency Hospital Service, Ministry of Health, British Government

Awarded on:

January 17th, 1941

On the night of 7th September 1940, a high explosive bomb fell on the South Eastern Hospital, New Cross, killing four nurses and injuring some patients in the adjoining ward. Another nurse was pinioned by a block of masonry which had fallen across her legs. Mr. Dolphin and some fellow workers were trying to free her when the wall of the room began to crack. The other jumped clear before the wall fell, but Albert Dolphin flung himself down across the nurse's body to protect her and in so doing took the full weight of the falling masonry. He was killed, but the nurse, though severely injured, was subsequently extricated, alive.


Posthumously awarded