David Selves Aged 12

We had to visit the ENT Emergency clinic this morning (!) so we made ourselves feel less sorry for ourselves with a visit to Postman's Park Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice round the back of Barts Hospital.

I've been meaning to go there for years, its a lovely little park with a wall of memorial tiles to heroic acts that ended in the untimely death of the saviour.

Poor little David Selves, did his best and saved his chum but lost his own life.

Poor Mary Rogers, stewardess of The Stella, who sacrificed herself by giving up her lifebelt and voluntarily going down in the sinking ship in 1899.

Poor Elizabeth Boxall, aged 17, from Bethnal Green who died of injuries recieved in trying to save a child from a runaway horse.

And poor William Drake who, in 1869 lost his life in averting an accident to a lady whose horses were unmanageable through the breaking of the carriage pole.

There are many more, the most recent one was a Thamesmead man who saved a drowning boy in 2007 but was unable to save himself.

Our ear infection felt a bit better after that.