Life
Born the son of Ellen Blogg, he was brought up in the family of James Davies (whose son John became Henry's stepfather after John Davies married Ellen Blogg in 1881), himself coxswain of the Cromer lifeboat. He first went to sea as a lifeboatman in 1894 in the rowing lifeboat Benjamin Bond Cabbell and then served in the Louisa Heartwell as second coxswain under Jimmy 'Buttons' Harrison. When coxswain Harrison retired in 1909 due to ill health, Blogg won the vote to take on the leadership role.
Away from lifeboat duties, Blogg was foremost a crab fisherman but Cromer being a popular holiday resort, he also ran a deckchair and beach hut hire business.
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century lifeboats around the coast of Britain relied on the strength of the oarsmen and the power of the wind. The Cromer boat was launched from an open beach, and judgement and determination were the prime requirements of the coxswain. In the early hours of a fierce January morning in 1917 the Cromer lifeboat was launched to aid a vessel just in sight off Cromer, the Pyrin. The Cromer men rowed their boat through the breakers, succeeding in coming alongside the stricken vessel, and taking off her crew. They rowed back to Cromer. As they reached the beach the Swedish vessel the Fernebo struck a naval mine and was blown in half. The two halves drifted towards the beach.
From one half, about 16 men set out in a ship's boat. As they reached the edge of the breakers onto the beach, their boat was capsized. Teams of men, grasping each others arms, had walked into the water, and they were able to help the men from the boat, and aid them ashore. Meanwhile the lifeboat was rehoused on its trailer and was pushed again into the breakers, to launch to the other half of the Fernebo.
The ferocity of the sea threw the boat back onto the beach. Recarriage and try again. This happened at least three times. It was not until midnight, under the light of searchlights from the clifftop, that the lifeboat finally reached the stricken half-vessel and took off its crew. Blogg had led his men for nearly 24 hours of heroic effort.
In 1924 Blogg was awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal by the King. In 1927, Blogg was awarded a gold watch and his crew a silver watch each after a rescue on the Haisborough Sands.
Henry received a Silver Medal from the RNLI in 1932 for rescuing 30 men and a dog from the steamer Monte Nevoso aground on the Haisborough Sands. The Canine Defence League awarded him their own Silver Medal.
In October 1939 the lifeboat went to the SS Mount Ida. During the long night-time rescue the lifboat was damaged and the no. 2 boat was required to help.
In 1941 he was awarded the BEM. At around the same time it was announced that the Empire Gallantry Medal he was awarded in 1924 was to be substituted with the George Cross which he was awarded in October that year.
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Famous quotes containing the word life:
“A man’s whole life is taxed for the least thing well done. It is its net result.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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