University of Nottingham student Grace O’Malley Kumar is to be awarded for her bravery.
Grace was stabbed and killed alongside her friend, Barnaby Webber, after a night out in June 2023.
The Nottingham medical student will receive the George Medal for protecting Barnaby as the pair walked home together that night.
Grace was one of 20 recipients of latest Gallantry awards for courage and bravery awarded October 6th. She was among twenty recipients, three of which were awarded posthumously and collected by next of kin.
Barnaby Webber via Nottinghamshire Police
The George Medal is a civilian bravery award given for acts of great bravery not in the presence of the enemy. Both Grace and Barnaby were given posthumous degree awards by the University of Nottingham earlier this year.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer spoke on the awards. He said: “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.
“We owe each of them – and their families – our deepest thanks. Their actions remind us of the strength and compassion that run through our communities.
“I want to pay tribute to all of the recipients, including Grace O’Malley Kumar who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect her friend. Her legacy will live on as a powerful example of heroism.”
He also went on to say that Grace had made the ultimate sacrifice in order protect her friend and that her legacy was a “powerful example of heroism”, describing her actions as what true courage looks like.
Grace O’Malley Kumar via Nottinghamshire Police
Grace’s mother, Dr Sinead O’Malley also spoke at a new conference Monday 6th October. She said: “She’s quite an exceptional human being, and Grace will go down in the history books as such.”
She added the award was “telling the country what a brave and wonderful girl she was, how creative she was.
“We are immensely proud of her, so despite her youth in years, she was incredibly brave.”
Her father Dr Sanjoy Kumar said that his daughter “placed friendship over fear.”
“She was 19 and she valiantly fought a 30-year-old armed with a large hunting knife. 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.”
In January 2024 prosecutor Karim Khalil told a court during the hearing that Barnaby Webber had sustained multiple stabbings with a dagger from Valdo Calocane causing him to fall to the floor.
Grace showed “incredible bravery” in trying to protect Mr Webber, but Calocane was “as uncompromisingly brutal in his assault” against her.
The citation for Grace O’Malley-Kumar reads: “Grace O’Malley-Kumar was walking home to student accommodation in Nottingham with her friend, Barnaby Webber, when they were approached by a man with a large knife.
“He carried out a sudden attack on Barnaby, leading Grace to intervene in order to restrain the assailant in an attempt to stop the attack.
“This led to the assailant attacking Grace with the knife, who continued to fight the attacker until she fell to the floor having sustained multiple injuries.
“Tragically, Grace and Barnaby both passed away as a result of their injuries from the attack.”
Calocane has been sentenced to an indefinite hospital order last January after pleading guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility and attempted murder.
Featured image via Nottinghamshire Police
