A medal awarded to a woman more than 90 years ago for trying to save a boy in Kingsbridge from his homicidal father has been sold at auction.

Emma José Townsend was visiting her sister in the South Hams Cottage Hospital in May 1932 when she intervened to try to save the life of nine-year-old William, who had been admitted after being shot by his father.

The man, a local farmer called William Jarvis Yeoman, had earlier killed the boy’s mother and two siblings, Catherine, 11, and and a 15-month old baby girl.

He decided to attack his son for a second time and entered the hospital with a shotgun concealed under his coat. He reportedly fired a shot at the boy and struck him several times with the barrel of the gun as he lay in bed.

Ms Townsend heard the boy’s desperate screams and, despite her small stature, rushed in to help. In the ensuing struggle, Yeoman struck her on the head with the shotgun, cutting her head open and causing much loss of blood.

Yeoman fled the scene and was arrested by the police hours later.

The boy died two days later, but Ms Townsend was awarded with the Empire Gallantry Medal – later known as the George Cross – for her bravery in 1933.

According to an article in The London Gazette at the time, King George V was “graciously pleased to approve” giving Ms Townsend the medal.

Ms Townsend, who lived in a cottage in East Portlemouth, was however reluctant to talk about the incident at the time, saying that everyone would have acted in the same way in the circumstances.

Yeoman later went on trial for murdering his family and for Ms Townsend’s attempted murder. He was jailed after being found guilty and detained in a lunatic asylum after being declared insane.

This week, the medal was sold to a German private collector for £13,000 at London auctioneers Noonans in Mayfair.

Ms Townsend, who reportedly died at the age of 85 in 1965, was only one of four women to receive the Empire Gallantry Medal.