(Compiled by Maureen Anderson)

William Grainger was born at Hartlepool in 1864. He married Bridget ‘Biddy’ (nee Fox) & they had two sons, William and James, and three daughters, Eve, Margaret and Ethel. In the true Hartlepool seafaring tradition of the time William served in sailing ships & early iron steamers, fished for herring in the Hartlepool keel boats and, in later life was a foy boatman.

He was a member of the Middleton Volunteer Life-Saving Company and the Hartlepool Rocket Life-Saving Brigade during which time he received a bronze gallantry medal from the Board of Trade. It was presented to him by the Mayor of Hartlepool, Councillor M Harrison, at the Royal Naval Reserve Battery in the first week of December 1901 for his part in the rescue of part of the crew of the Trio on 13 November 1901. During a severe gale & turbulent seas the Swedish barque had struck the south pier and, within sight of hundreds of people, began to break up. All the crew ended up in the water and some washed towards the shore. A few of the men watching the tragedy had ropes to try to pull the drowning crew to land and one, Alfred Gales, donned a lifebelt and brought two men to land. One survived but the other was dead when carried ashore.

William, at huge risk to his own life, swam through the boiling surf and floating wreckage and managed to rescue a man. He then re-entered the water to try to save another but the wreckage came between them and the man later washed up dead. An alarm was given that another man had been seen in the water and William made a third attempt to save a life but this proved to be a false sighting. Only three from the crew of ten survived. For this act of bravery the people of West Hartlepool presented William with a gold medallion.

William was also a member of the Hartlepool Rocket Life-Saving Brigade for which he received a Board of Trade silver medal after 35 years’ service. The medal was presented on 17 October 1930 at the Hartlepool Rocket House by Captain R Bacchus, Inspector of Coastguards at Tynemouth. At this time William was aged 68 and living at 22 Wood Street. Remembered as a ringer of the fog bell on Hartlepool Breakwater he also acted as watchman for the Port and Harbour Commission at the Old Pier.

On his death The Northern Daily Mail of Friday, September 6^th 1946 described William as one of the last of the original Crofters which referred to an old part of Hartlepool known as the Croft which has now gone.