A UK policeman, who has his roots in County Galway, was honoured in London last Thursday for saving the life of a distressed woman who had climbed over the railing of a footbridge with the intention of jumping onto the road below.
PC Leighton Gill and his colleague PC Iain McAllen responded to a call to the Metropolitan Police back in February about a woman on a footbridge over the A2 at Bexleyheath in London – the A2 is the major road that connects London with Dover in south-east England, and around the Bexleyheath area is a motorway in all but name.
They approached the woman and attempted to talk to her, but when a jogger ran onto the footbridge, she climbed over the railing and leaned backwards, eyes closed, towards the traffic below.
PC Gill – the son of Thomas Gill from Ballinderreen – grabbed the woman, who began kicking and screaming. He was lifted off his feet and almost pulled over the handrail. Both he and his colleague held onto the woman, who was now dangling over the traffic, before eventually managing to haul her back over the railing. She was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and taken to hospital for treatment.
“We are obviously very proud of Leighton and it is a great honour for him,” his aunt, Bridie Sheridan from Dangan Heights in Galway City, told the Connacht Tribune this week. “He was very lucky he wasn’t pulled over the railing and onto the road with the woman, who was kicking and screaming and obviously wasn’t well.
“It just shows the levels of danger policemen, and our own Gardaí, face regularly. The Gardaí can get an awful time of it, but it shows the levels they go to for the public, things that might not be seen by everyone.
“It is frightening to think of the dangers they can face, but thankfully Leighton was okay, he just got a bang on the arm but didn’t have to go to hospital,” said Bridie of her nephew, who along with his colleague was presented with a royal Humane Society Testimonial last Thursday by Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the head of the Metropolitan Police. They had previously been presented with commendations by Bexley police and Bexley Borough Council.
PC Gill is the eldest of three sons born to Thomas Gill, who emigrated to England about 40 years ago. Thomas is the son of Mary-Ann and the late Tom Gill from Ballinderreen, and is the grandnephew of Mick Gill, the only man to have won two All-Ireland medals in the same year.
“My father’s brother, Mick, was a guard, and is the only man to have won two All-Ireland medals in the one year. He won the 1923 All-Ireland hurling final with Galway, but that game wasn’t played until 1924.
“By then he had joined the new Garda Siochána and was stationed in Dublin, so he started playing with Dublin and as things would have it, they reached that year’s All-Ireland final and were up against Galway! That final was played in December that year, and Dublin won it, so he won with Galway in September and Dublin in December,” Bridie says.
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