From the Trust's website: "In 1886, over 20 years before the Carnegie Hero Fund was established in the UK, {Andrew} 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.” ...
The first Hero Fund, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, was established in America in 1904 after a colliery disaster near Carnegie's adopted home of Pittsburgh ...
The Carnegie Hero Fund Trust was established in Britain in 1908 and was soon followed by nine Funds on the European continent."
