226600 Station Sgt. Frederick John Blake Police H Division Metropolitan Police Sergeant Blake, together with PCs W R Edwards and L D Hall were awarded the George Medal for rescuing people who were trapped when a bombed warehouse collapsed and fell onto a large public shelter. This happened on the night of 19-20 April 1941 at the Co-op Warehouse in Barchester Street, Poplar, East London. The London Gazette's citation of 18 November 1941 said that Hall and Edwards, together with Sergeant Blake and other police officers, faced searching through piles of debris on and around the site. After tunnelling through the mass of fallen masonry they discovered four injured/trapped people, freed them and took them outside. After this, they found more survivors, who were also freed. The Gazette said `Edwards and Hall continuously risked their lives' throughout the rescue. My father, a War Reserve officer, knew these police officers, and said of this incident that most of the police officers he knew had experienced something like the scene described above.
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