Four: Surgeon Commander Thomas Austen, Royal Navy

1914-15 Star (Ft. Surg. T. Austen, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Surg. Commr., R.N.); Legion of Honour, Chevalier’s breast badge, silver, gilt and enamels, good very fine (4) £200-250

Thomas Austen was born on 8 November 1864 and entered the Royal Navy as a Surgeon on 21 February 1889. In 1894 he was lent from Curacoa and had charge of an accumulation of wounded Samoan rebels after they had been shelled from their trenches near Apia during the Samoan civil war of 1893-94. In 1904, when Staff Surgeon of Talbot, he rendered “first aid” to the disabled Russian cruiser Variag after her engagement with a Japanese cruiser squadron at Chemulpo, Korea, and received the Order of St Stanislaus, 2nd class with swords, for his services. He was decorated Chevalier of the Legion of Honour by the President of the French Republic for services during the Great War (London Gazette 15 September 1916), and died on 22 October 1918.