An off-duty police officer based at Hammersmith and Fulham has been praised after his quick thinking and actions helped save the life of a man who had collapsed and stopped breathing.

PC Tom Upton was returning home after a night out in Kingston upon Thames with PC Emily Richardson from Road Transport Policing Command when they heard some commotion in a nearby street and rushed to help.

The pair, who had met a few months earlier while dealing with prisoners at Hammersmith Police Station, were thanked by Kingston’s borough commander in person on June 2.

PCs Upton and Richardson were heading home in the early hours of the morning last month (May) when they rushed to help the stricken man and quickly started first aid.

With the help of members of the public they started work to save the man’s life. PC Richardson carried out six cycles of chest compressions before the patient started breathing on his own.

He was then placed in the recovery position while they waited for paramedics to arrive, but he again stopped breathing.

They rolled the man on to his back and PC Richardson started compressions. He began to breathe after another set of six chest compressions just as the paramedics arrived and took over.

The man was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment and placed in intensive care. However, he is now on the mend and expected to make a full recovery.

A Kingston Police spokesperson said: “They will be awarded a commendation at our up coming awards ceremony.

“Imagine if they had gone a different way home or not heard the commotion. We would like to publicly thank them for what they did.”

Last month heroic police officers were recognised for their lifesaving acts by the Royal Humane Society. They included police sergeant and constable from Kensington and Chelsea who rescued a man from a burning building and other officers from Westminster, Ealing and Harrow.

Rookie police constable Dewayne Hamilton had been in the job for less than a week when he saved a teen from falling from a bridge crossing the A40 in Uxbridge. His actions saw him put forward for a bravery award.

And away from the Thin Blue Line, an RAF hero received a top honour from the Queen after jumping in to the Thames in Westminster to save a drowning woman .