Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

Prison Officer

Unit:

Renand Block, Liverpool Prison

Awarded on:

January 28th, 1941

John Joseph Meehan was a Prison Officer at Liverpool when the Remand Block was hit by a torpedo bomb on the night of September 1940. He worked with 2 others for 3 1/2 hours using pick axes, bars and sledge hammers, and bare hands. Gas and water were escaping and the only method to release the prisoner was to break through the wall of the cell. He was finally released without serious injury in the worst imaginable conditions, in darkness apart from the light of pocket lamps, with the danger of the roof collapsing, gas, water, and enemy aircraft overhead.

London Gazette 28th January 1941. The announcement appeared in the Press Wednesday 29th January 1941.