Royal National Lifeboat Institution, G.V.R., bronze (Ernest George, Voted 9th January 1920) with uniface ‘double dolphin’ suspension, mounted as worn, in Wyon, London case of issue, extremely fine £400-500

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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‘30 November 1919: En route from Queenstown, Co. Cork, Ireland to Southampton in company with two other motor launches and a destroyer, H.M.M.L. No. 378 was shipping water in a south-south-westerly gale off Land’s End, when in the afternoon her engines stopped. One of the launches twice got a line to her but each one parted and No. 378 drifted helplessly toward the Longships Reef. The lifeboat Ann Newbon launched and reached the casualty when she was almost on the reef. In desperation the motor launch’s nine man crew put off in her dinghy, but it capsized, throwing them into the furious water. Four of them regained the motor launch to be flung with her on the rocks; the lifeboat was just in time to snatch four of the other five from the turbulent sea. The four men on the rocks, half buried in water and frozen, were dragged on board the lifeboat as she manoeuvred close into the reef on her anchor; the slightest miscalculation would have meant disaster’ (Ref. Lifeboat Gallantry, by Barry Cox).

For their services at this rescue, the Coxswain and Second Coxswain of the Sennan Cove Lifeboat were each awarded the R.N.L.I. Medal in Silver. Twelve other members of the Sennan Cove Lifeboat, including Ernest George, were each awarded the Medal in Bronze. Sold with a copied extract from The Lifeboat.