A R.N.L.I. pair awarded to Lieutenant Arthur Lakeland Sanderson, Royal Naval Reserve, who was awarded the D.S.C. in the Great War

British War Medal 1914-20 (Lieut., R.N.R.); Royal National Lifeboat Institution, G.V.R., silver (Lieut. A. L. Sanderson, R.N.R., Voted 12th January 1917) with uniface ‘double dolphin’ suspension, very fine (2) £550-650

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Life Saving Awards formed by The Late W.H. Fevyer.

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Ref. Spink Exhibition 1985, No. 71.

D.S.C. London Gazette 6 April 1918. ‘... in recognition of their services in vessels of the Auxiliary Patrol between 1st January and 31st December 1917’.

‘29-30 December 1916: The 2,244 ton S.S. Alondra, en route from Las Palmas to Liverpool, was wrecked on the Kedge Rock, off Baltimore, Co. Cork, Ireland. Sixteen of her crew left in one of the ship’s boats, but drowned before they could reach the shore. Archdeacon Becher and some other volunteers launched a boat but failed to land on Kedge Rock. They returned to Baltimore but they put off again as some of the wreck’s crew had made the Rock. Failing to reach the wreck with night closing in, they put back to the shore again. At daylight, they set out with the rocket apparatus. About the same time, two R.N. trawlers came upon the scene, and the combined efforts of all those present saved 23 survivors, some of whom had to be lowered down the sheer face of a 150 foot cliff’ (Ref. Lifeboat Gallantry, by Barry Cox).

The Venerable Archdeacon John Richard Hedge Becher, M.A., Honorary Secretary of the Baltimore R.N.L.I. and Lieutenant Arthur Lakeland Sanderson, R.N.R., of H.M. Trawler Indian Empire, were both awarded the R.N.L.I. Medal in Silver. For the same rescue, an aneroid barometer was awarded to a fisherman and the sum of £47 was shared amongst forty other men who participated.

Sold with a newspaper clipping announcing the award of the D.S.M. (sic) and extracts from The Lifeboat regarding the rescue.