*** children in history -- child heroes








Child Heros (England, 1970-1917)

Henry James Bistow
Figure 1.--Here is one of the plaques in London's Postman's Park. This one commemorates Henry James Bistow who saved his little sister. Open fires in homes and flameable clothing was a serious problem in the 19th century.

I came across a Garden in Central London called ' The Postman's Park'. In it was a wall along which were plaques recording heroic deeds of ordinary people between 1870 and 1917. Several of the heroic deed doers were children. Many were small boys. All that was recoded was the boys name and the herioc deed they did. Sadly all the boys lost their lives in attempting to save others. The boys had gone out to play with their friends. In playing a bad incident occurred in which at least one of the children had got into a life threatening situation. One boy had tried to save the life of his friend. The outcome was that only one friend was saved or both perished. Most of the incidents involved playing in or near water. Other stories involved boys who tried to save another child from a road accident. The child under threat was often saved but the boy rescuer was often killed instead. There were at least two stories involving clothing catching fire while the child was near an open fire in the home. A boy saved his sister's life by tearing the flaming clothes off his sister but sadly his clothing caught fire and the boy died later from the burns he received.


William Fergusson









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Created: 11:59 PM 6/25/2006
Last updated: 11:59 PM 6/25/2006