The Messina Earthquake Medal awarded to Able Seaman H. Piper, Royal Navy, who was killed when H.M.S. Vanguard exploded at Scapa Flow on 9 July 1917, with the loss of over 800 lives

Italy, Kingdom, Messina Earthquake Medal 1908, silver, unnamed as issued, good very fine £140-£180

Harry Piper was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on 13 October 1887 and joined the Royal Navy as a Boy Second Class on 23 June 1903. Advanced Able Seaman on 23 May 1907, he served in H.M.S. Lancaster from 7 April 1908 to 30 May 1910 (interspersed with various periods borne on the books of H.M.S. Egmont, the depot ship at Malta), and took part in the relief operations following the Messina Earthquake, 28 December 1908.

Piper served throughout the Great War in H.M.S. Vanguard, and was present in her at the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916. He was killed on 9 July 1917, when just before midnight, Vanguard, at anchor at Scapa Flow, suffered an explosion, probably caused by an unnoticed stokehold fire heating cordite stored against an adjacent bulkhead in one of the two magazines which served the amidships gun turrets 'P' and 'Q'. She sank almost instantly, killing an estimated 804 men; there were only two survivors. In terms of loss of life, the destruction of Vanguard remains the most catastrophic accidental explosion in the history of the United Kingdom, and one of the worst accidental losses of the Royal Navy. He is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

Sold with the named medal enclosure from H.M.’s Ambassador at Rome, named to ‘226,762 H. Piper, A.B., H.M.S. “Lancaster”, this in three parts and sellotaped together; and a postcard showing the ruined city sent by the recipient to ‘Mrs. Piper, Braemar, West Port, Wareham, Dorset’, with the message ‘With love from Harry’.