The Carnegie Hero Fund Trust is a Scottish charity. It was established in 1908 as a British extension to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission which had been founded in 1904 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Trust was founded upon a financial endowment from the Scottish philanthropist and steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. The purpose of the Trust is to provide payments to individuals who have been injured or financially disadvantaged as a result of undertaking an act of heroism or in fatal cases to provide for the family or other dependants. 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.
History
The founding of the Carnegie Hero Fund Trust was announced in September 1908 with a bold statement from its benefactor, Andrew Carnegie, "Gentlemen…we live in a heroic age. 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". Carnegie provided $1.25 million in bonds, yielding an annual income of £12,500, as a means to supporting the Trust’s work. Such an amount, Carnegie believed, would be sufficient to "meet the cost of maintaining injured heroes and their families during the disability of the heroes [and] the widows and children of heroes who may lose their lives". Essentially, the purpose of the Trust was to provide pensions or one-off payments to individuals who had been injured or financially disadvantaged as a result of undertaking an act of heroism or in the case of those who lost their lives through such an act, to provide for the family or other dependants.
In terms of inspiration for establishing the projects, the noted palaeontologist and first president of the Commission, William J. Holland, recalled a conversion with Carnegie a couple of years prior to the founding of the Commission when, following reports of a dramatic rescue from a burning building, Carnegie commented, ‘I intend some day to do something for such heroes. Heroes in civic life should be recognized’. However, there is evidence that Carnegie was interested and active in recognising civilian heroism long before that.
Memorial to William Hunter
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. A fifteen-year-old local lad, Andrew Robson, had attempted to swim the loch but had become entangled in a bed of pondweed from which he was unable to free himself. 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. Robson was eventually saved through the use of a long ladder and, a short time afterwards, William’s lifeless body was recovered from the loch.
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. The true heroes of civilisation are those alone who save or greatly serve them. Young Hunter was one of those and deserves an enduring monument". So it would seem as though the will to recognise acts of civilian heroism had burned in Carnegie for many years before he actually established his projects.
Reasons for establishing the Hero Funds
Carnegie was a great believer that men who died rich died in disgrace and the various Hero Funds that he established were just one of the many charitable enterprises through which the philanthropist attempted to distribute his vast wealth. Recognising heroic individuals was a particularly suitable avenue for Carnegie because, by 1908, there was general public perception that heroism was the preserve of morally decent people and the performance of a heroic act was indicative of a respectable and upstanding character". 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.