Last Friday evening, around midnight, 20 year-old Folajimi Olubunmi-Adewole, known to his friends as Jimi, was on his way home from work with his friend Bernard when they saw a woman fall from London Bridge into the Thames. As they called the police Jimi and Bernard could hear the woman in the water screaming ‘Help me, help me, I’m gonna die’. Without hesitation Jimi and another passerby dived into the river and swam towards the struggling woman.

An hour later the Coastguard and Metropolitan Police Marine Units were able to rescue the woman and one of her rescuers but sadly there was no sign of Jimi. His body was eventually discovered at 6.00pm on Saturday morning. Detective Chief Supt Oliver Shaw said: “I would like to send my deepest condolences, and the condolences of everyone at City of London Police, to the family and friends of this brave, kind and selfless young man.” People on social media hailed Jimi as a “true hero”, “a great Samaritan”, and “very brave young man”v and asked that a memorial be erected in his honour. It was suggested that an appropriate remembrance might be placed in Postman’s Park, in the City of London, the home of George Frederic Watt’s *‘Memorial to Self-Sacrifice’, honouring ordinary working men and women who gave their lives to save others. Among the 54 memorial tablets, remembering such people as Sarah Smith, a pantomime artist who died in January 24^th 1863 of “terrible injuries received when attempting in her inflammable dress to extinguish the flames which had enveloped her companion” and Leigh Pitt who in June 7^th, 2007, “saved a drowning boy from the canal at Thamesmead, but sadly was unable to save himself” is a ceramic plaque placed there in 1903 remembering a young woman from Isleworth called Alice Ayres.

Alice was born in Wallpole, Isleworth, on 12^th September 1859, the seventh child of John Ayres, a carter, and his wife Mary. By the time Alice was 11, the family had gained three more children and moved into Magdala Road, Isleworth. In 1877 her older sister, Mary Ann, married an oil and paint dealer Henry Chandler who owned a shop at 194, Union Street, Southwark, close to the present-day Tate Modern.

In 1885 Alice, now 26, joined Henry and Mary in their family flat over the shop as a general servant and nurse maid. Her job was to look after her three nieces, five year old Edith, Ellen who was four and three year old Elizabeth. Alice was clearly devoted to her young charges. One neighbour said, “No merry making, no excursion, no family festivity could tempt her from her self-imposed duties. The children must be bathed and put to bed, the clothes must be mended, the rooms must be ‘tidied up’, the cloth must be laid, the supper carefully prepared, before Alice would dream of setting forth on her own pleasures.” Another described the young woman as “not one of your fast sort-gentle and quiet-spoke, and always busy about her work.”

On the night of 24^th April 1885 a fire started in the shop which spread rapidly through the store of paint, oil and gunpowder. Although the Fire Brigade were quickly on the scene such was the heat that they were unable to raise ladders and rescue the occupants. An anxious crowd gathered and began shouting for Alice who had appeared at a second floor window to jump. Instead the young woman, clad only in her nightgown, turned back to the room that she shared with her nieces, found a feather mattress and threw it out of the window. Then she returned with Edith who she dropped safely onto the mattress. Twice more Alice turned back into the flames, returning first with Ellen who she threw into the waiting arms of one of the crowd below and then with Elizabeth who although badly burnt landed safely on the mattress. Sadly the little girl was to die later from her appalling injuries.

Alice then jumped herself. Faint with smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion she fell badly, first hitting a sign projecting from the front of the shop and then missing the mattress. Badly burnt and with severe spinal injuries Alice was rushed to Guy’s Hospital. Because of public interest bulletins were issued hourly on Alice’s condition and even Queen Victoria sent a lady-in-waiting to enquire after her. Sadly Alice Ayres died on 26^th April 1885. Her last words apparently were “I tried my best and could try no more”.

Such was Alice’s adulation that when a memorial service was held at St. Saviour’s Church, now Southwark Cathedral, there were so many mourners that many had to be turned away. Her funeral in Isleworth Cemetery was attended by over 10,000 people who watched her coffin being carried through the streets by 16 firemen. The plan to have 20 girls dressed in white from Alice’s old school sing at her graveside was only cancelled because of a severe hailstorm.

An impressive red granite Egyptian style obelisk over 4 metres tall was erected over her grave in Isleworth Cemetery inspired by ‘Cleopatra’s Needle’ which had been installed on London’s Embankment just 7 years earlier. Alice’s memorial is still the tallest in Isleworth Cemetery. On the base it says…

“Sacred to the memory of ALICE AYRES, aged 26 years, who met her death through a fire which occurred in Union Street, Borough, the 24^th of April, 1885 A.D. Amidst the sudden terrors of the conflagration, with true courage and judgment, she heroically rescued the children committed to her charge. To save them, she three times braved the flames; at last, leaping from the burning house, she sustained injuries from the effects of which she died on April 26^th 1885. This memorial was erected by public subscription to commemorate a noble act of unselfish courage. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”

“One by one- Nobly done- Seeks the children through the smoke, Though the red flames break the door, Though the white fumes through the floor Curl, to stifle and to choke.”

– ‘ALICE AYRES’ by Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley 1896

In just three days, over 100,000 people have signed a petition calling for a memorial plaque in honour of FolajimI Olubunmi-Adewole, known to his friends as Jimi. Signatories would like the plaque to be placed on London Bridge “to honour his bravery and act of heroism”. Members of the public have nominated him for the George Cross award for posthumous bravery, the highest award that the British government can give to people for non-operational gallantry.

– from Martyn Day