A SKINNY kid with tousled hair fidgets nervously in a grand hall of Government House as he waits for his name to be called.

Charlie Keilar is standing next to 10 survivors of the Melbourne shooting which claimed the life of his father, Brendan, 17 months ago.

As Colin Bannister, director of the Royal Humane Society, calls his name, Charlie needs a slight nudge. He shyly walks over to the Victorian Governor, David de Kretser, shakes his hand and receives the medal on behalf of his late father.

"Virtute paratum" (bravery rewarded) reads the inscription on the silver medal.

Bravery. Courage. Selflessness.

These are the words Mr Keilar's widow, Alice, used yesterday in a short statement to describe her late husband.

The Keilars have not spoken publicly since the shooting.

Mrs Keilar, her three children and relatives have grieved privately for Mr Keilar, a solicitor and proud family man.

Like 52 other people who were honoured for bravery yesterday, Mr Keilar, an ordinary person, displayed extraordinary courage when he, with a Dutch backpacker, Paul de Waard, rushed to rescue Kaera Douglas as she struggled with a bikie thug, Christopher Wayne Hudson, outside a Flinders Lane bar, in the heart of the city, in June last year.

Hudson, who shot at the trio - killing Mr Keilar - is serving a 35-year jail term.

"The reason why I stepped into this was because … I felt I wasn't doing it on my own," Mr de Waard recalled yesterday.

"I felt strong because we were together, me and Mr Keilar."

Mr de Waard still walks with a stick but says he considers himself lucky. It is the Keilars' loss he highlights.

After receiving a silver medal, Mr de Waard kissed Charlie and whispered, "Well done." The boy, who was eight when his father died, smiled.

Another boy sat next to Charlie, smiling as he inspected his own medals.

Jake Thomas, 10, was awarded the bronze medal and the Rupert Wilks Trophy for the most outstanding act of bravery by a child under 12.

Jake, who was a passenger in a four-wheel-drive that plunged 200 metres over a steep embankment near the Victorian alpine village of Licola in June, scrambled out of the car, and, despite his broken arm, rushed to get help. "I'm pretty happy with it - it's pretty cool," he said of his medals after the ceremony.

And, like others honoured yesterday for their selfless acts in fires, wild seas, road crashes and robberies, Jake said he would do the same again.