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The Royal Humane Society (RHS) originated at a meeting at the Chapter Coffee House, St Paul's Churchyard, London, on 18 April 1774, when Dr William Hawes and Dr Thomas Cogan each invited sixteen friends to join them in founding an institution. Those present at this meeting included physicians, surgeons and other prominent men. The object of the Society was to promote research into techniques of resuscitation, grant pecuniary awards for successful instances of restoration of people who had apparently drowned, and to disseminate and publish information on resuscitation in general.
Similar societies were established during the 1760s-1770s in places including Amsterdam, Milan, Venice, Hamburg, Paris and St Petersburg, to treat persons variously drowned, strangled, frozen or affected by noxious gases, as well as to award prizes and publish methods of treatment.
William Hawes had for the previous year been personally rewarding rescuers who had brought ashore bodies recovered from the Thames between Westminster and London bridges. This responsibility was taken over by the new Society. In 1775 a medal was designed as a reward for successful resuscitation of people who seemed to be dead.
The Society issued pamphlets that described and evaluated various rescue apparatus. It also kept detailed case records, containing pathological observations of drowned persons. Presentations of Bible, a prayer book and religious book were also made to individuals restored from apparent drowning by the medical assistants.
William Hawes (1736-1806) was not only the founder of the Society, but one of the most active members of the Society. He petitioned Parliament for the provision of Receiving Houses for drowned and suffocated persons in every parish in England, and to establish schools where medical students could be taught the principles of resuscitation. In 1778 he was appointed Registrar for the Society, and edited the Society's Annual Reports from 1780 until his death.
In 1835 a the Hyde Park Receiving House was custom-built on the north bank of the Serpentine, in Hyde Park, on ground given to the Society by George III and extended by William IV. Previously it had, with the agreement of consenting inn-keepers, used inns along the riverside where bodies taken from the water might be brought and an attempt made at resuscitation. A superintendent and a number of other staff were employed at the Receiving House.
By 1777, the Society had recorded 167 cases, and by 1794, 2572 cases had been investigated, of which 959 persons had been restored to life by the medical assistants, 876 lives had been preserved by the Society's apparatus, and 747 cases had been unsuccessful. By 1809, more than 15,000 cases had been reported and eight receiving houses were in operation.
King George III granted his royal patronage in 1785, and in 1787, the prefix 'Royal' was added to the Society's title. Following the death of William IV, Queen Victoria agreed to be Patron. In the nineteenth century, the Society's focus broadens to include development of life-saving. It encouraged the development and testing of life-saving appliances, and a prize essay competition instituted as a result of a bequest from Dr Anthony Fothergill, the topic of which was 'The prevention of shipwreck and the preservation of lives of shipwrecked mariners'. Their work inspired the foundation of a number of similar societies in Great Britain, the Commonwealth and other places abroad.
In 1834, the Society was located at premises in 2 Chatham Place, Blackfriars. In 1841, it moved to 3, then 4 Trafalgar Square where it remained until 1930, when it relocated to Watergate House, Adelphi. It currently occupies premises located at the north end of Waterloo Bridge.
The Stanhope Gold Medal, the highest honour that the Society can bestow, was instituted in 1873 by public subscription by the friends of Captain Chandos Scudamore Scudamore Stanhope RN. Often the occasions requiring resuscitation techniques to be employed also involved courageous rescues, and the Society began to recognise and reward bravery.
By 1900 cases numbered 31,085. In 1924, the Receiving House in Hyde Park continued to have two open wards under the care of a resident superintendent. The House was severely damaged by enemy action Sep 1940, during World War Two, and despite protracted negotiations for war damage compensation and rebuilding, was never completed and the site eventually transferred to the Ministry of Works. In 1954, rebuilding plans halted, the building was demolished, and the lifesaving equipment turned over to responsibility of borough and urban district Councils.
By 1949, the Society was also maintaining approximately 400 stations containing lifesaving apparatus such as lifebuoys, within a 30 mile radius from Hyde Park. The Society was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1959. Its current object is to collect evidence, investigate, record and in suitable cases present awards to people who have shown bravery in lifesaving in the widest possible variety of circumstances. The Society accepts nominations from members of the public as well as from the emergency services who forward cases for consideration by a Committee that meets ten times a year in order to adjudicate on the most appropriate award to be made in each case.