GALLANTRY RECALLED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21991, 24 December 1934, Page 13

GALLANTRY RECALLED

STRAND ARCADE FffiE

INCIDENT OF 25 YEARS AGO RESCUER'S SUDDEN DEATH A gallant incident of 25 years ago is recalled by the sudden death on Saturday afternoon of Mr. Thomas Roberts Macferson, aged 62, of Burleigh Street, Mount Eden, who collapsed while riding in a tranicar in Symonds Street, and whose death occurred as he was being taken in a St. John ambulance to the Auckland Hospital. It was Mr. Macferson who risked his life to rescue a man trapped in the top storey of the Strand Arcade during the disastrous fire which gutted the arcade and caused damage esti mated at £IOO,OOO on August 16, 1909. The New Zealand Herald, describing the incident, stated: — "The alarm of fire had been given only a few minutes when a face appeared at a front window in the third storey, and a man's cries for help were heard above the seething of the flames. Two men in the crowd immediately sprang forward. One, Mr. J. H. McCarroll. manager of the Mitclielson Timber Company, essayed to rush up the Arcade stairway, but was beaten back by the smoke.

"The second, Mr. T. R. Macferson, head storeman at Cochrane's auctioneering establishment, climbed up the fire escape ladder to the roof of the pdjoining Thistle Hotel. While the crowd waited with bated breath, Mr. Macferson scrambled round tho ledges in the direction of the window and by a supremo effort pulled the man on to the roof of the hotel. The crowd cheered and cheered again, acclaiming him the hero of the hour. The rescued man was Mr. E. Crouch, a commission agent, whose office was on the top floor of the Arcade."

For this action, Mr. Macferson was awarded the Stead Gold Medal by tho Royal Humane Society. Mr. Macferson, who was single, was born in Sonlli Wales and spent most of his life at Liverpool before coming to New Zealand about 30 years ago. For the past 25 years he had been salesman at Robertson's auctioneering mart. He leaves two brothers, Messrs. W. W. Macferson ami A. Macferson, of Auckland, and three sisters, one of which, Mrs. B. S. Walls, lives at NewPlymouth. Tho other two live in England.