WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.400 Have you ever wondered how a society officially 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:09.220 recognizes like truly recognizes the kind of 00:00:09.220 --> 00:00:11.880 raw selfless courage that makes a person risk 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:14.439 absolutely everything to save a total stranger? 00:00:14.759 --> 00:00:17.100 It's a heavy question, yeah. It really is. Welcome 00:00:17.100 --> 00:00:20.120 to our Deep Dive. Today we have a really fascinating 00:00:20.120 --> 00:00:22.899 stack of sources all centered around the historical 00:00:22.899 --> 00:00:24.760 records of the Albert Medal for life -saving. 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:27.239 Right. And our mission today is to track how 00:00:27.239 --> 00:00:30.160 our whole definition of everyday civilian heroism 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:33.320 evolved basically from 1866 all the way up to 00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:36.420 1971. And you know what I love about the documents 00:00:36.420 --> 00:00:38.539 we're looking at is that they are so much more 00:00:38.539 --> 00:00:41.799 than just a dry registry of dates or like royal 00:00:41.799 --> 00:00:44.079 decrees. Oh, totally. They offer this incredible 00:00:44.079 --> 00:00:47.520 chronological map of shipwrecks on jagged rocks, 00:00:48.060 --> 00:00:50.219 of collapsed coal mines in the dead of night, 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:52.479 and just ordinary people going about their day 00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:54.600 who suddenly have to make the choice to do something 00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:57.719 completely extraordinary. But to really grasp 00:00:57.719 --> 00:00:59.700 the weight of this award, we have to look at 00:00:59.700 --> 00:01:02.780 its inception, which was tied to one very specific. 00:01:02.969 --> 00:01:05.829 highly dangerous domain. Right, the sea. Exactly. 00:01:06.010 --> 00:01:08.629 The medal was officially instituted by a royal 00:01:08.629 --> 00:01:12.370 warrant on March 7th, 1866, and it was named 00:01:12.370 --> 00:01:15.709 in memory of Prince Albert. And originally, it 00:01:15.709 --> 00:01:18.189 was exclusively for saving lives at sea. Just 00:01:18.189 --> 00:01:20.769 at sea. Only at sea. And the physical design 00:01:20.769 --> 00:01:23.090 of the medal actually reflected that exclusivity 00:01:23.090 --> 00:01:26.370 perfectly. It featured this five -eighths inch 00:01:26.370 --> 00:01:29.569 wide blue ribbon with two white stripes. Very 00:01:29.569 --> 00:01:31.849 nautical. Very nautical, heavily specialized. 00:01:32.329 --> 00:01:34.629 The timeline of its creation is what really stands 00:01:34.629 --> 00:01:36.450 out here. I mean, the Royal Warrant is signed 00:01:36.450 --> 00:01:39.409 on March 7th. Right. And then barely two weeks 00:01:39.409 --> 00:01:43.530 later, on March 23rd, 1866, the universe just 00:01:43.530 --> 00:01:46.390 serves up the ultimate test case with the wreck 00:01:46.390 --> 00:01:48.689 of a ship called the Spirit of the Ocean. Yeah, 00:01:48.730 --> 00:01:51.189 that wreck provided the very first recipient 00:01:51.189 --> 00:01:53.650 of the award. And his background is really crucial 00:01:53.650 --> 00:01:55.689 to understanding the metal's whole legacy. OK, 00:01:55.709 --> 00:01:58.010 let's unpack this. Who was he? So his name was 00:01:58.010 --> 00:02:00.760 Samuel Popplestone. And he was not a soldier. 00:02:00.859 --> 00:02:03.780 Right. He wasn't some seasoned Coast Guard captain 00:02:03.780 --> 00:02:06.299 with specialized training. He was just a tenant 00:02:06.299 --> 00:02:09.780 farmer in Devon. Wow. Just a farmer. Just a farmer. 00:02:09.960 --> 00:02:13.300 Yeah. And he happened to be watching this cargo 00:02:13.300 --> 00:02:17.199 ship, the Spirit of the Ocean, losing this just... 00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:20.280 catastrophic battle against Force 11 gales. Okay, 00:02:20.280 --> 00:02:22.159 we need to pause and talk about the physical 00:02:22.159 --> 00:02:25.599 reality of a Force 11 gale because it is difficult 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:28.460 to overstate the danger here. On the Buford scale, 00:02:28.860 --> 00:02:31.840 Force 11 is a violent storm. It's the absolute 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:35.400 last step before a full -blown hurricane. Yeah, 00:02:35.400 --> 00:02:37.259 you're talking about wind speeds over 60 miles 00:02:37.259 --> 00:02:40.139 per hour. Exactly. Exceptionally high waves, 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:42.340 visibility reduced to almost nothing, and the 00:02:42.340 --> 00:02:45.020 surface of the sea is completely covered in white 00:02:45.020 --> 00:02:48.009 foam. It's like a modern action movie but without 00:02:48.009 --> 00:02:50.610 the helicopters or tactical gear right in those 00:02:50.610 --> 00:02:52.949 conditions the ship gets swept onto the start 00:02:52.949 --> 00:02:55.669 point rocks which is a location that's just notorious 00:02:55.669 --> 00:02:58.909 for tearing wooden holes to pieces so poplestone 00:02:58.909 --> 00:03:01.770 sees this unfolding and he pauses just long enough 00:03:01.770 --> 00:03:03.810 to raise the alarm and then he heads out to the 00:03:03.810 --> 00:03:06.849 wreck completely alone in a near hurricane yeah 00:03:07.259 --> 00:03:10.520 He scrambles out onto these jagged rocks. And 00:03:10.520 --> 00:03:12.979 the source documentation actually notes he was 00:03:12.979 --> 00:03:15.419 physically swept off the rocks several times 00:03:15.419 --> 00:03:18.099 by the crashing waves. Oh, wow. But he just keeps 00:03:18.099 --> 00:03:20.580 climbing back up. And he does this armed with 00:03:20.580 --> 00:03:23.860 nothing but a literal small coil of rope. A single 00:03:23.860 --> 00:03:26.099 piece of rope. He brings a piece of rope to a 00:03:26.099 --> 00:03:29.439 hurricane. And through sheer physical willpower, 00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:32.719 he manages to lift four men out of this churning 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:35.819 water and drags them all the way up the cliff 00:03:35.819 --> 00:03:38.020 to safety. Single -handedly. Single -handedly. 00:03:38.219 --> 00:03:41.319 It just, it makes you wonder what overrides a 00:03:41.319 --> 00:03:43.819 human being's fundamental survival instinct in 00:03:43.819 --> 00:03:45.520 a moment like that, you know? Right. Because 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:48.020 there is no training manual for a tenant farmer 00:03:48.020 --> 00:03:50.379 facing those conditions. No, not at all. And 00:03:50.379 --> 00:03:52.400 what's fascinating here is the institutional 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:55.259 reaction to Pomplestone. It reveals a lot about 00:03:55.259 --> 00:03:57.520 how these honor systems actually work. How so? 00:03:57.659 --> 00:04:00.300 Well, the press got hold of his story and elevated 00:04:00.300 --> 00:04:03.680 him to this massive national hero status. The 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:06.039 public was absolutely captivated by this lone 00:04:06.039 --> 00:04:07.960 farmer battling the element. Everyone loves a 00:04:07.960 --> 00:04:10.500 hero story. Exactly. Yeah. And because of that, 00:04:10.620 --> 00:04:13.780 intense public pressure and fascination, he essentially 00:04:13.780 --> 00:04:16.379 forced the institution's hand. He became the 00:04:16.379 --> 00:04:19.500 first recipient of this brand new award for civilian 00:04:19.500 --> 00:04:23.120 gallantry under that 1866 warrant. So he proved 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:25.420 that institutional recognition often has to play 00:04:25.420 --> 00:04:28.300 catch up to individual human brilliance. Precisely. 00:04:28.680 --> 00:04:30.860 The government created this theoretical framework 00:04:30.860 --> 00:04:34.500 for heroism. And two weeks later, A farmer completely 00:04:34.500 --> 00:04:36.660 redefines their expectations. Yeah, exactly. 00:04:36.740 --> 00:04:38.800 But OK, the rules of this initial warrant are 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:42.120 so strictly tied to the ocean, blue ribbons named 00:04:42.120 --> 00:04:44.579 for a prince explicitly built around the perils 00:04:44.579 --> 00:04:47.459 of maritime life. Right. It seems crazy that 00:04:47.459 --> 00:04:49.279 the British government would eventually abandon 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:52.100 that maritime exclusivity to focus on dry land. 00:04:52.680 --> 00:04:56.000 There had to be like a powerful catalyst to fundamentally 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:59.509 rewrite a royal decree. There was. That catalyst 00:04:59.509 --> 00:05:01.949 was the Teenawood Cottery disaster in Wales, 00:05:02.050 --> 00:05:05.449 which happened on April 11th, 1877. Now, coal 00:05:05.449 --> 00:05:07.689 mining in the 1800s was incredibly dangerous, 00:05:07.750 --> 00:05:10.069 and the text we're analyzing actually makes a 00:05:10.069 --> 00:05:11.769 very grim revealing point here. What does it 00:05:11.769 --> 00:05:14.329 say? It notes that by the grim standards of that 00:05:14.329 --> 00:05:18.569 era, the Tynewith disaster was, quote, relatively 00:05:18.569 --> 00:05:21.459 unremarkable. God, that is just a heartbreaking 00:05:21.459 --> 00:05:23.879 phrase to see in a historical document. There 00:05:23.879 --> 00:05:25.860 really is. A disaster where people are trapped 00:05:25.860 --> 00:05:28.779 underground is categorized as unremarkable. Well, 00:05:28.980 --> 00:05:31.220 structurally it was. Yeah. Single mining accidents 00:05:31.220 --> 00:05:34.579 in that era frequently claimed hundreds of lives. 00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:37.740 Right. A collapse, a flood, a gas explosion. 00:05:38.459 --> 00:05:42.079 It was all largely accepted as the tragic, unavoidable 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:44.889 cost of fueling the Industrial Revolution. the 00:05:44.889 --> 00:05:47.189 cost of doing business, basically. Yeah, sadly. 00:05:47.689 --> 00:05:50.310 So the sheer loss of life or the mechanics of 00:05:50.310 --> 00:05:53.009 the mine flooding weren't unique enough to inherently 00:05:53.009 --> 00:05:55.790 demand a change in royal protocol. Right. The 00:05:55.790 --> 00:05:58.589 difference in 1877 was the mechanism of the media. 00:05:59.189 --> 00:06:01.569 Ah, the press again. The source material highlights 00:06:01.569 --> 00:06:03.589 that the rescue of the surviving colliers was 00:06:03.589 --> 00:06:06.470 reported episodically in the press. Yes. That 00:06:06.470 --> 00:06:09.410 word is key. Episodically. We have to think about 00:06:09.410 --> 00:06:11.470 the technological shift happening right at this 00:06:11.470 --> 00:06:14.060 time. The expansion of the telegraph network 00:06:14.060 --> 00:06:16.519 meant that news didn't take weeks to travel from 00:06:16.519 --> 00:06:19.040 rural Wales to London anymore. Right. It was 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:21.740 practically real time. Journalists could send 00:06:21.740 --> 00:06:25.199 daily, even hourly updates. So people were reading 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:28.240 about this determined, super dangerous rescue 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:30.759 effort over their breakfast tables day after 00:06:30.759 --> 00:06:34.120 day. It became a serialized drama. And members 00:06:34.120 --> 00:06:35.920 of Parliament, along with the general public, 00:06:36.300 --> 00:06:38.180 were reading the newspaper every morning with 00:06:38.180 --> 00:06:40.699 bated breath, just waiting to see if these trapped 00:06:40.699 --> 00:06:42.500 miners had been reached by the rescue crews. 00:06:42.980 --> 00:06:45.500 The suspense must have been intense. It was. 00:06:45.980 --> 00:06:48.720 This daily drip of high -stakes information captured 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:51.259 the national imagination in a way that previous, 00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:55.040 much deadlier disasters simply had not. Because 00:06:55.040 --> 00:06:57.180 previous disasters were reported after the fact. 00:06:57.420 --> 00:06:59.759 Exactly. The episodic nature of the Tainu with 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:02.620 rescue created this huge suspense. And think 00:07:02.620 --> 00:07:05.300 about how slowly government usually moves, right? 00:07:05.660 --> 00:07:07.680 Especially in the 19th century. How glacial. 00:07:07.870 --> 00:07:11.209 The disaster happens on April 11th. The telegraphs 00:07:11.209 --> 00:07:14.350 fuel this massive public frenzy and then released 00:07:14.350 --> 00:07:17.509 from Windsor Castle on April 25th. Just 14 days 00:07:17.509 --> 00:07:20.209 later, 14 days later, a brand new royal warrant 00:07:20.209 --> 00:07:22.990 is issued extending the Albert Medal to cover 00:07:22.990 --> 00:07:26.649 actions on land. It's unprecedented speed. 14 00:07:26.649 --> 00:07:29.189 days for the British monarchy to completely rewrite 00:07:29.189 --> 00:07:32.269 the rules of a national honor. I mean, I have 00:07:32.269 --> 00:07:34.529 to push back a little on the historical motives 00:07:34.529 --> 00:07:37.579 here. Fair enough. Was this 14 day turnaround 00:07:37.579 --> 00:07:41.560 a genuine sudden awakening of elite empathy for 00:07:41.560 --> 00:07:44.620 working class Welsh minors? Or are we just looking 00:07:44.620 --> 00:07:47.480 at a wildly successful PR move by politicians 00:07:47.480 --> 00:07:49.920 who needed to appease a public obsessed with 00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:52.319 a media narrative? If we connect this to the 00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:54.579 bigger picture, the speed certainly points to 00:07:54.579 --> 00:07:56.920 political pragmatism. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. 00:07:57.279 --> 00:08:00.259 But whether it was pure empathy or pure politics 00:08:00.259 --> 00:08:04.129 almost doesn't matter in the long run. because 00:08:04.129 --> 00:08:06.889 what it illustrates is the profound power of 00:08:06.889 --> 00:08:09.709 narrative. A tragedy only becomes a catalyst 00:08:09.709 --> 00:08:12.649 for national institutional change when the public 00:08:12.649 --> 00:08:15.110 is given a story they can follow and heroes they 00:08:15.110 --> 00:08:17.250 can root for. That makes a lot of sense. The 00:08:17.250 --> 00:08:19.730 miners and their rescuers were humanized by that 00:08:19.730 --> 00:08:22.129 episodic reporting. They ceased to be a simple 00:08:22.129 --> 00:08:24.790 statistic and a ledger of mining fatalities and 00:08:24.790 --> 00:08:26.709 became actual individuals fighting for their 00:08:26.709 --> 00:08:28.889 lives. The government basically had no choice 00:08:28.889 --> 00:08:31.300 but to respond to that localized humanity. And 00:08:31.300 --> 00:08:33.580 they made sure to visually categorize that response, 00:08:33.879 --> 00:08:37.100 too. The new land version of the metal was enameled 00:08:37.100 --> 00:08:41.279 in red, and it featured a red ribbon, which clearly 00:08:41.279 --> 00:08:43.720 distinguished it from the original blue sea version. 00:08:43.779 --> 00:08:46.419 A very clear visual shift, yeah. But as the scope 00:08:46.419 --> 00:08:48.700 of the metal expanded geographically from the 00:08:48.700 --> 00:08:51.269 water to the earth, The diversity of the people 00:08:51.269 --> 00:08:53.730 who received it began to expand dramatically 00:08:53.730 --> 00:08:56.750 as well. Absolutely. The metal itself evolved 00:08:56.750 --> 00:08:58.830 structurally to accommodate different levels 00:08:58.830 --> 00:09:01.049 of risk, too. Right. The classes changed. Yeah. 00:09:01.230 --> 00:09:04.509 In 1867, they introduced two distinct classes. 00:09:05.129 --> 00:09:07.230 You had a first -class metal in gold and bronze 00:09:07.230 --> 00:09:10.230 and a second class in just bronze. OK. The gold 00:09:10.230 --> 00:09:13.110 was reserved for cases of extreme, almost certain 00:09:13.110 --> 00:09:16.259 peril to the rescuer. while the bronze recognized 00:09:16.259 --> 00:09:18.840 immense bravery that perhaps had a slightly higher 00:09:18.840 --> 00:09:22.720 chance of survival. And later, in 1917, These 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:24.940 titles were simplifying to just the Albert Medal 00:09:24.940 --> 00:09:26.700 in gold and the Albert Medal for the bronze. 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:28.740 Here's where it gets really interesting for me. 00:09:28.899 --> 00:09:31.460 Looking at the list of recipients over the decades, 00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:34.519 the Albert Medal transforms into this incredible 00:09:34.519 --> 00:09:37.740 social map of an entire empire. It really does. 00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:41.259 It stretches far beyond the rocky cliffs of Devon 00:09:41.259 --> 00:09:44.240 or the coal mines of Wales. It reaches all the 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:46.360 way to the Australian outback. And the source 00:09:46.360 --> 00:09:49.320 gives us a remarkable example of this expansion 00:09:49.320 --> 00:09:52.080 with II Guy. Yes. He was also known in colonial 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:55.700 records as Neighbor or Nipper. He was an Indigenous 00:09:55.700 --> 00:09:58.559 Australian police tracker and stock man working 00:09:58.559 --> 00:10:02.179 in the Northern Territory. OK. In 1911, Iyaguy 00:10:02.179 --> 00:10:05.120 saves a policeman from drowning. And for that 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:07.700 action, he becomes the first Indigenous Australian 00:10:07.700 --> 00:10:10.059 to win a medal for gallantry. We really have 00:10:10.059 --> 00:10:13.139 to contextualize what 1911 Australia looked like. 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:15.720 Oh, absolutely. This was a deeply stratified 00:10:15.720 --> 00:10:18.200 colonial society where indigenous people faced 00:10:18.200 --> 00:10:21.500 intense systemic marginalization. Yes. The idea 00:10:21.500 --> 00:10:23.480 that an indigenous tracker would be awarded a 00:10:23.480 --> 00:10:26.179 prestigious imperial honor created by a British 00:10:26.179 --> 00:10:28.899 royal warrant, it's staggering. It is. It brings 00:10:28.899 --> 00:10:31.120 up this sort of romantic notion that extreme 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:33.759 bravery acts as the ultimate equalizer. When 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:36.259 someone risks their life, societal labels like 00:10:36.259 --> 00:10:38.440 tenant farmer, Welsh miner or indigenous tracker 00:10:38.440 --> 00:10:41.149 just fall away. This raises an important question, 00:10:41.330 --> 00:10:43.950 though. It is a powerful concept, and the medal 00:10:43.950 --> 00:10:46.169 physically connects all these disparate people 00:10:46.169 --> 00:10:48.789 on the same historical ledger. Right. You have 00:10:48.789 --> 00:10:51.629 Aya Iggy in 1911, and then you look at a later 00:10:51.629 --> 00:10:54.549 record from 1939 involving Lieutenant Turner 00:10:54.549 --> 00:10:57.129 of the Royal Marines. What happened there? Turner 00:10:57.129 --> 00:11:00.659 is at sea. The water is incredibly rough. and 00:11:00.659 --> 00:11:03.500 he sees Sergeant G .E. Young in the water. Without 00:11:03.500 --> 00:11:05.960 hesitation, Turner dives overboard to assist 00:11:05.960 --> 00:11:09.139 him. Wow! Both men tragically drowned, and Turner 00:11:09.139 --> 00:11:12.580 was awarded the Albert Medal posthumously. So 00:11:12.580 --> 00:11:14.740 you have an indigenous stock man and a Royal 00:11:14.740 --> 00:11:17.899 Marine officer bound by the exact same enamel 00:11:17.899 --> 00:11:20.100 and ribbon. It's an incredible connection, but 00:11:20.100 --> 00:11:23.240 I do wonder, though, if an award really erases 00:11:23.240 --> 00:11:26.360 those class and racial boundaries, or if it merely 00:11:26.360 --> 00:11:28.639 suspends them for the duration of a ceremony, 00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:31.539 you know? Like an imperial medal doesn't dismantle 00:11:31.539 --> 00:11:34.799 a colonial system or suddenly improve the daily 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:37.279 working conditions of a coal miner. That is a 00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:39.600 very fair critique. The medal doesn't magically 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:42.340 rewrite the social order. I .E. Iggy still had 00:11:42.340 --> 00:11:45.360 to navigate 1911 Australia after the medal was 00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:47.960 pinned to his chest. However, what the award 00:11:47.960 --> 00:11:51.360 does accomplish is forcing the institution to 00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:55.000 permanently record their valor. It mandates that 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:57.740 the state formally recognize that the highest 00:11:57.740 --> 00:12:00.539 futures of humanity are not restricted to the 00:12:00.539 --> 00:12:03.659 upper classes or the military elite. It forces 00:12:03.659 --> 00:12:06.820 a rigid system to bow, even if just for a moment. 00:12:07.080 --> 00:12:09.460 to ordinary people. That's a great way to put 00:12:09.460 --> 00:12:11.860 it, and that formal recognition is a heavy burden 00:12:11.860 --> 00:12:14.240 to carry, especially for those who survived the 00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:16.419 acts that earned them the medal. Yeah, survivor's 00:12:16.419 --> 00:12:19.320 guilt is very real. But as with all things, eras 00:12:19.320 --> 00:12:22.399 end. The technological world modernized, the 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:25.019 nature of danger shifted, and the British system 00:12:25.019 --> 00:12:27.320 of honors eventually had to restructure itself. 00:12:27.480 --> 00:12:29.600 Right. The Albert Medal couldn't last forever. 00:12:30.039 --> 00:12:32.440 No, it couldn't. The phasing out of the award 00:12:32.440 --> 00:12:34.960 was pretty gradual. The highest level of the 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:37.279 award, the Albert Medal in gold, was awarded 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:40.139 for the final time in 1945. Right after World 00:12:40.139 --> 00:12:42.679 War II. Exactly. By the late 1940s, there was 00:12:42.679 --> 00:12:45.259 a quiet shift in policy. The decision was made 00:12:45.259 --> 00:12:47.679 to only award the bronze version of the medal 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:50.659 and only posthumously. So the era of handing 00:12:50.659 --> 00:12:53.179 a newly minted Albert Medal to a living hero 00:12:53.179 --> 00:12:56.039 was essentially closed. Essentially, yes. The 00:12:56.039 --> 00:12:58.259 final two awards ever given under the Albert 00:12:58.259 --> 00:13:02.330 Medal name occurred in 1970. Wow. And they were 00:13:02.330 --> 00:13:04.669 promulgated in the London Gazette, which for 00:13:04.669 --> 00:13:06.370 those who don't know is the official Journal 00:13:06.370 --> 00:13:08.370 of Record for the British government, where all 00:13:08.370 --> 00:13:10.549 these statutory notices are formally published. 00:13:10.889 --> 00:13:13.179 Right. These last two medals went to a pair of 00:13:13.179 --> 00:13:15.679 Australians, actually, Geoffrey Clifford By and 00:13:15.679 --> 00:13:18.159 Kenneth Owen McIntyre. And then following those 00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:21.740 final awards, on October 21st, 1971, the Albert 00:13:21.740 --> 00:13:24.940 Medal was officially revoked. Just like that. 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:28.139 Just like that. It was revoked alongside another 00:13:28.139 --> 00:13:31.679 civilian gallantry award, the Edward Medal. But 00:13:31.679 --> 00:13:33.899 the government faced this unique administrative 00:13:33.899 --> 00:13:36.000 problem. What do you do with the living recipients? 00:13:36.220 --> 00:13:38.620 Exactly. They didn't want to simply erase the 00:13:38.620 --> 00:13:41.000 recognition of the living recipients whose medals 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:43.720 had just been retired. That would be a PR nightmare. 00:13:43.919 --> 00:13:47.179 A disaster. So to solve this, a new policy was 00:13:47.179 --> 00:13:50.100 enacted. All living recipients of the Albert 00:13:50.100 --> 00:13:53.419 Medal, as of that date in 1971, were legally 00:13:53.419 --> 00:13:55.980 deemed to be holders of the George Cross. Now, 00:13:55.980 --> 00:13:58.659 to understand the magnitude of that shift, you 00:13:58.659 --> 00:14:00.899 really have to understand the order of precedence. 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:03.840 Right. The order of precedence isn't just some 00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:06.820 casual list. It dictates the formal hierarchy 00:14:06.820 --> 00:14:09.740 of honors, where you stand at royal events, the 00:14:09.740 --> 00:14:12.120 level of institutional respect you command. It's 00:14:12.120 --> 00:14:15.159 a huge deal. It is. And the George Cross sits 00:14:15.159 --> 00:14:18.230 at the absolute pinnacle of civilian gala. awards 00:14:18.230 --> 00:14:21.090 in the UK system. It's basically the civilian 00:14:21.090 --> 00:14:23.409 equivalent of the Victoria Cross. The very top. 00:14:23.730 --> 00:14:26.909 So functionally the government was offering these 00:14:26.909 --> 00:14:29.870 people a massive upgrade in prestige. It wasn't 00:14:29.870 --> 00:14:32.970 just a title change on paper either. the recipients 00:14:32.970 --> 00:14:35.690 were given the option to physically exchange 00:14:35.690 --> 00:14:39.129 their Albert Medal insignia for the actual George 00:14:39.129 --> 00:14:41.690 Cross. Okay, so what does this all mean for the 00:14:41.690 --> 00:14:43.529 people holding them? Well, the administrative 00:14:43.529 --> 00:14:46.350 numbers on this exchange process are deeply revealing 00:14:46.350 --> 00:14:49.049 about human nature. I bet. According to the source, 00:14:49.549 --> 00:14:52.809 of the first 64 former Albert Medal recipients 00:14:52.809 --> 00:14:55.190 who were identified as eligible for this physical 00:14:55.190 --> 00:14:59.100 exchange, 49 took up the option to swap their 00:14:59.100 --> 00:15:01.820 insignia. Okay, so 49 traded it in. But wait, 00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:04.059 that leaves 15 people. Think about the psychology 00:15:04.059 --> 00:15:05.759 here for a second. The government approaches 00:15:05.759 --> 00:15:08.460 you and says, we are retiring your old medal, 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:11.000 but we are elevating your status to the highest 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:13.559 possible honor in the land. Just hand over the 00:15:13.559 --> 00:15:15.580 old piece of bronze and we will hand you the 00:15:15.580 --> 00:15:18.340 George Cross. Right. Why would nearly a quarter 00:15:18.340 --> 00:15:22.419 of those initial 64 people look at an offer for 00:15:22.419 --> 00:15:25.080 the most prestigious civilian honor in the Empire 00:15:25.080 --> 00:15:27.860 and just flatly refuse it? It speaks volumes, 00:15:27.879 --> 00:15:31.139 doesn't it? It's about our deep emotional attachment 00:15:31.139 --> 00:15:34.059 to physical objects. Especially objects forged 00:15:34.059 --> 00:15:37.139 in the fires of trauma. Precisely. From a purely 00:15:37.139 --> 00:15:39.639 administrative standpoint, the George Cross is 00:15:39.639 --> 00:15:42.909 objectively the better It sits higher in the 00:15:42.909 --> 00:15:45.529 order of precedence. But the government failed 00:15:45.529 --> 00:15:48.210 to account for what that specific physical piece 00:15:48.210 --> 00:15:50.710 of enameled metal represented to the person holding 00:15:50.710 --> 00:15:53.210 it. It reminds me of asking someone to trade 00:15:53.210 --> 00:15:55.990 their grandfather's battered, handwritten diary 00:15:55.990 --> 00:16:00.149 for a pristine, brand new encyclopedia. That's 00:16:00.149 --> 00:16:02.590 a great way to look at it. The encyclopedia objectively 00:16:02.590 --> 00:16:05.269 contains more information and societal prestige, 00:16:05.330 --> 00:16:08.350 but the diary contains the actual soul of the 00:16:08.350 --> 00:16:10.940 memory. That is the perfect analogy. The Albert 00:16:10.940 --> 00:16:13.840 Medal wasn't just metal. It was the specific, 00:16:14.259 --> 00:16:17.220 tangible artifact handed to them in recognition 00:16:17.220 --> 00:16:19.940 of what was simultaneously the most terrifying 00:16:19.940 --> 00:16:22.600 and greatest day of their lives. Yeah. It was 00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:25.000 their physical link to the freezing water they 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:27.419 almost drowned in or the suffocating mine that 00:16:27.419 --> 00:16:29.360 almost collapsed on them. Right, it's visceral. 00:16:29.820 --> 00:16:32.539 To surrender that specific object back to a government 00:16:32.539 --> 00:16:36.139 clerk in exchange for a new, shiny cross, it 00:16:36.139 --> 00:16:38.000 might feel like erasing their personal history. 00:16:38.570 --> 00:16:41.610 The upgrade in status would require wiping away 00:16:41.610 --> 00:16:44.250 the intimate, fizzle memory of the exact lice 00:16:44.250 --> 00:16:47.779 they saved. deep emotional attachment completely 00:16:47.779 --> 00:16:51.259 explains why so few were returned. But it also 00:16:51.259 --> 00:16:53.240 makes you wonder just how many of these physical 00:16:53.240 --> 00:16:55.320 artifacts are actually out there in the world, 00:16:55.679 --> 00:16:58.159 sitting in display cases or tucked away in family 00:16:58.159 --> 00:17:00.679 attics. Not many. Yeah. Looking at the final 00:17:00.679 --> 00:17:03.399 statistics, it is an incredibly rare honor. The 00:17:03.399 --> 00:17:05.160 final numbers give us a really comprehensive 00:17:05.160 --> 00:17:07.460 overview of its rarity and its historical scope. 00:17:07.660 --> 00:17:10.160 So what are the final tallies? For the C variant, 00:17:10.619 --> 00:17:14.069 there were exactly 25 gold awards. plus one unique 00:17:14.069 --> 00:17:17.730 award granted to the Board of Trade. And 216 00:17:17.730 --> 00:17:20.009 bronze. And for land. For the land variant, there 00:17:20.009 --> 00:17:24.930 were 45 gold medals and 282 bronze. So across 00:17:24.930 --> 00:17:27.589 more than a century of history spanning the entire 00:17:27.589 --> 00:17:30.470 globe and an expanding empire, we're talking 00:17:30.470 --> 00:17:35.920 about Roughly 570 instances of recognized mind 00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:38.200 -boggling bravery. It's a tiny number when you 00:17:38.200 --> 00:17:41.279 think about it. 570 times that a person looked 00:17:41.279 --> 00:17:43.599 at a nearly unsurvivable situation and decided 00:17:43.599 --> 00:17:46.059 to walk into it anyway. Yeah. It's an incredibly 00:17:46.059 --> 00:17:48.460 exclusive club of people who never sought out 00:17:48.460 --> 00:17:50.380 membership. They just saw someone in trouble 00:17:50.380 --> 00:17:52.960 and reacted. And the medal, in all its iterations, 00:17:53.119 --> 00:17:55.599 was just society's imperfect way of trying to 00:17:55.599 --> 00:17:58.079 process the fact that these people exist. Just 00:17:58.079 --> 00:18:00.880 trying to build a framework to somehow honor 00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:03.259 them. Which brings us to the end of our journey 00:18:03.259 --> 00:18:05.940 with the Albert Medal. We've watched it emerge 00:18:05.940 --> 00:18:08.559 from the violent sea alongside a solitary farmer 00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:11.539 in Devon. We've seen it pulled onto land by the 00:18:11.539 --> 00:18:13.539 power of the telegraph and the serialized press 00:18:13.539 --> 00:18:16.269 coverage of a Welsh coal mine. We've traced its 00:18:16.269 --> 00:18:18.710 path across the colonial structures of the Australian 00:18:18.710 --> 00:18:21.670 outback. And finally, we watched it gracefully 00:18:21.670 --> 00:18:24.289 retire into history, trading places with the 00:18:24.289 --> 00:18:27.230 George Cross. It operates as a historical map, 00:18:27.869 --> 00:18:30.769 really. A map of what society feared most during 00:18:30.769 --> 00:18:34.289 those specific centuries. From shipwrecks to 00:18:34.289 --> 00:18:37.309 mine collapses and how they found hope in the 00:18:37.309 --> 00:18:39.130 darkest of those environments. And that leads 00:18:39.130 --> 00:18:40.950 me to a final thought for you, the listener, 00:18:41.230 --> 00:18:44.220 to take away today. If you look at the Albert 00:18:44.220 --> 00:18:47.319 Medal, it was a direct reflection of the technological 00:18:47.319 --> 00:18:50.539 and industrial dangers of the 19th and 20th centuries. 00:18:50.839 --> 00:18:53.059 Exactly. Wooden shifts being torn apart in storms. 00:18:53.240 --> 00:18:55.660 Coal mines collapsing as we aggressively fueled 00:18:55.660 --> 00:18:58.079 the Industrial Revolution. The award was perfectly 00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:00.500 designed to match the specific frontiers of danger 00:19:00.500 --> 00:19:03.539 of its era. But every era produces its own unique 00:19:03.539 --> 00:19:05.839 hazards. Right. And requires its own specific 00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:08.160 brand of courage. So look at where we are right 00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:11.220 now. If we had to design a civilian gallantry 00:19:11.220 --> 00:19:13.619 medal for the 20th... What would it look like? 00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:15.859 That's a great question. Our new frontiers are 00:19:15.859 --> 00:19:18.440 no longer just rocky coastlines and coal seams. 00:19:18.859 --> 00:19:21.559 We are looking at the vast, lethal vacuum of 00:19:21.559 --> 00:19:24.559 space exploration. We are navigating the totally 00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:27.660 invisible but devastating realms of cyberspace, 00:19:28.180 --> 00:19:30.579 where a single action could save a hospital grid 00:19:30.579 --> 00:19:34.420 from collapse. We are facing unprecedented, civilization 00:19:34.420 --> 00:19:37.579 -altering climate disasters. Yeah. When the environment 00:19:37.579 --> 00:19:40.470 itself is the threat, What new forms of human 00:19:40.470 --> 00:19:42.769 bravery will we eventually have to invent a name 00:19:42.769 --> 00:19:45.589 for? Will the next Samuel Popplestone need a 00:19:45.589 --> 00:19:48.450 coil of rope or a string of code to pull us back 00:19:48.450 --> 00:19:50.029 from the edge? There's definitely something to 00:19:50.029 --> 00:19:51.650 think about. Something to ponder as you go about 00:19:51.650 --> 00:19:54.069 your day. Thank you so much for joining us on 00:19:54.069 --> 00:19:56.710 this deep dive. Keep asking questions, keep looking 00:19:56.710 --> 00:19:58.809 out for one another, and most importantly, keep 00:19:58.809 --> 00:20:00.569 learning. Until next time.