Grace O’Malley-Kumar, 19, will be posthumously honoured with one of Britain’s highest awards for civilian bravery after she died trying to save her friend Barnaby Webber during the Nottingham attacks on June 13, 2023.
The University of Nottingham students were walking home from a night out in the city when they were fatally stabbed by paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane in Ilkeston Road.
Prosecutors said Grace showed “incredible bravery” by trying to fight off Calocane, pushing him into the road in an attempt to protect Barnaby, before being attacked herself.
Grace’s parents, Dr Sinead O’Malley and Dr Sanjoy Kumar, attended a news conference in London on Monday, where they spoke of their pride in their daughter’s courage.
Grace O’Malley-Kumar will be posthumously honoured(Image: Nottinghamshire Police)
Dr O’Malley said the award was “telling the country what a brave and wonderful girl she was”, adding: “Grace will go down in the history books as such.”
Dr Kumar described his daughter as someone who “placed friendship over fear”.
He said: “Grace was an athlete, she could have easily run away, even to seek help, but her instinct was to stand by her friend, to intervene, to fight, to stop a sustained attack on her friend.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also praised Grace and the other recipients of the gallantry awards,
He added: “This is what true courage looks like.
“In moments of unimaginable danger, these extraordinary people acted with selflessness and bravery that speaks to the very best of who we are as a nation.”
Grace, from east London, represented England in youth hockey and played county cricket for Essex.
She was a student at Bancroft’s School in Woodford Green and had been studying medicine, hoping to become a doctor like her parents.
The George Medal is Britain’s second-highest civilian honour after the George Cross and recognises “conspicuous gallantry not in the presence of the enemy”.
Grace’s family will receive the medal at Buckingham Palace later this year.
A public inquiry into the attacks, led by retired judge Deborah Taylor, is under way and is expected to report back within two years.
