The Royal Humane Society of Australasia Queensland Investiture Ceremony 2024

The Right Honourable, the Lord Mayor of Brisbane Councillor Adrian Schrinner, representing the Queensland Police Service Commissioner Chief of Staff, Superintendent Paul Hart; Councillors; President of The Royal Humane Society of Australasia, Lieutenant Colonel David Arden (Retd); bravery award recipients, your family and friends, distinguished guests.

I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Custodians of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbal and Jagera people, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and to all First Nations people with us this afternoon.

As Governor and Patron of the Society, I am very pleased to join you for today’s Investiture Ceremony.

Governors of Queensland have a long and strong connection to this Society, beginning with our third Governor, the Marquess of Normanby.

After his term in Queensland, Lord Normanby served as Governor of Victoria where he obtained consent from Her Majesty Queen Victoria, for the society to assume the title of The Royal Humane Society of Australasia.

But the connection didn’t stop there. Within a year of acquiring the ‘Royal’ epithet, our sixth Governor, Sir Anthony Musgrave, was appointed as one of the early Patrons of the Society.

The Brisbane Courier at the time railed against the presumption of the Melbourne society, saying: “We feel sure that…there are a good many people who would prize much more highly a distinction by the Royal Humane Society of Great Britain than any which the Melbourne Society would confer.”

But concerns about Melbourne dominance evaporated in 1909 when Sir William MacGregor became our eleventh Governor because that much-criticised Melbourne society had awarded Sir William the gold Clarke Medal, the highest Humane Society award possible, for saving life at sea following a shipwreck in Fiji where he was working as a doctor.

But of course, the connection with Queensland and Queenslanders is not confined to the Vice-Regal sphere. With almost 9,000 brave individuals honoured since the inception of the Society 150 years ago, there is a rich trove of stories of the selfless courage of Queenslanders who have risked their lives to save the lives of others.

It is the equality of these awards that most impresses. Nationality, age and gender are immaterial; only the act itself is relevant. Back in 1885, a six-and-a-half-year-old boy received an award for saving his friend from drowning; a few years later, two South Sea Island lads, identified only as George and Joe, received bronze medals for their bravery.

In presenting the awards to those two lads at the Mackay Courthouse, the Magistrate told them that they should not part with their medals as long as they lived.

Our three award recipients today do not need such advice; I know they will always wear their medals with pride and, on behalf of all Queenslanders, I congratulate them, and thank them for their bravery, compassion, and selflessness.

Finally, as Patron, it now gives me great pleasure to present RHSA President, Lieutenant Colonel David Arden (Rtd), with this Certificate of Patronage, continuing the long traditional of Vice-Regal support for the Society.