Who is the most-decorated Scout lifesaver in history?

Answer 1

From what we can tell, George Oldroyd has received more lifesaving awards than any other Scout or Scouter, and received the highest awards. He received three Certificates of Merit, the Heroism Award, the Honor Medal, and the highest medal of all for lifesaving and courage, the Honor Medal with Crossed Palms from the B.S.A. He is the only one known to have been decorated more than twice, and the only one known to have received any version of the B.S.A. Honor Medal more than once.

That is a tremendous record of achievement in valor, but he also received the Cornwell Badge and several Gallantry Crosses from a B-P Rover Scouting association in the UK, including the Bronze Cross with bar, meaning he is likely the only one in history to receive that award twice.

Answer 2

There are only a couple of Scouts who received more than one lifesaving award from the B.S.A.. There is one who received the Medal of Merit twice. One received the Heroism Award twice. Two have received the Medal of Merit and the Honor Medal.

But only George Oldroyd is confirmed to have received the Honor Medal twice, and to have been decorated more than twice by the National Court of Honor. And the Bronze Cross for Gallantry was from the B-P Pathfinder Movement, which makes him the only one in history to receive the top valor award from Scouting associations in two different countries.

It's a stellar record for lifesaving, and it's even more mind-blowing when you consider that he was born with several genetic disabilities, and that he broke his back in a car wreck ten years before the action for which he was decorated with the Honor Medal with Crossed Palms and the Bronze Cross for Gallantry. He ran to fight that roadside fire, that was threatening to touch off a propane explosion in front of a nursing home, on legs he could not feel. He only learned to walk again after his car wreck by using titanium-hinged braces on his legs and feeling for the pressure of the ground underfoot in his knees. He broke his feet in seven places, including a compound fracture in his left foot that sent a jagged piece of bone straight through the flesh of his foot and out the side of his shoe, so he was bleeding all over the pavement while he churned through eleven extinguishers trying to keep the fire from involving the propane bottles and the jug of kerosene sitting on the passenger seat of the driver's truck.

It's staggering. The wound on his foot became infected and he eventually went into renal failure. They had to amputate his leg below the knee, along with part of his opposite foot, and he lost most of the vision in one eye. He lived through it, and is still learning to walk for the third time in his life.

And he did it all because he believes in his Scout Oath.