The Irish-born author of the horror story, Dracula, was himself a quiet hero: in 1882 he was awarded a Royal Humane Society Bronze Medal for attempting tosave a man from the River Thames.

According to the casebook entry, Stoker 'pulled off some of his clothes, jumped in and sustained the man until a boat came to them.' Despite frantic efforts to save the drowning man, he 'persistently kept his face under water'.

In his biography of Stoker, Daniel Farson writes:

'They struggled for nearly five minutes, until they were hauled back on board the Twilight.  As the man was insensible, Bram carried the body to 27 Cheyne Walk where his brother Dr George Stoker tried to revive him, but his efforts failed to bring the man to life.'

At the inquest no-one was able to identify the dead man who, because of a tattoo, was presumed to be a soldier.

Stoker wrote many novels both for children and for adults. But his most famous remains Dracula, which appeared in 1897.