Carnegie Hero Fund

In 1886, over 20 years before the Carnegie Hero Fund was established in the UK, Carnegie heard about the death of a Dunfermline boy who drowned in an heroic attempt to rescue a young swimmer in difficulties in the Town Loch, Dunfermline. Such was the response to the tragedy that a fund was launched to erect a memorial by public subscription. One of the subscribers was Andrew Carnegie who added the sum of 100 to the appeal. Carnegie s comments are now inscribed in stone on the local hero s memorial The false heroes of barbarous man are those who can only boast of the destruction of their fellows. The true heroes of civilisation are those alone who save or greatly serve them.