This has continued to be the aim of the Trust which each year considers around twelve cases of heroism within a geographical area encompassing Great Britain, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the surrounding territorial waters.
Not seldom are we thrilled by acts of heroism where men or women are injured or lose their lives in attempting to preserve or rescue their fellows; such are the heroes of civilisation".
On 25 July 1886, seventeen-year-old William Hunter was returning from a Sunday morning service at Townhill Church near Dunfermline in Scotland when he heard cries that a swimmer was in need of help at the town loch.
William, who had run to the spot, waded in and proceeded to swim out to Robson but was apparently struck with cramp and with a cry of "Chaps, I canna go further" he suddenly disappeared into the deep water.
[7] A subscription fund was established to recognise Hunter’s bravery and when Carnegie heard of this he donated £100 towards the creation of a memorial over the young man’s grave in Dunfermline Cemetery.
Carnegie also contributed his sentiments to the inscription on the memorial, which includes the following quotation "The false heroes of barbarous man are those who can only boast of the destruction of their fellows.
[9] Therefore, recognising acts of heroism provided Carnegie with a practical quality control mechanism through which bestow charity safe in the knowledge that it was going to suitably upstanding citizens.
For Carnegie, heroism was not something that could be ignored or overlooked, but was something that would find expression through one means or another, particularly in the case of young men for whom bravery and gallantry were something of a rite of passage.