Orders, Decorations and Medals

Royal National Lifeboat Institution, George IV, Silver Medal (Lieut. Saml. Grandy, R.N. Voted 8 May 1833) lacquered, otherwise good very fine £250-300

Lieutenant Samuel Grandy, R.N., H.M. Coastguard, Newhaven. Voted Silver Medal, 8 May 1833, for a rescue on 11 February 1833: ‘The Jersey smack John was wrecked in Seaford Bay, Sussex, during a heavy gale and driven ashore where the beach was very steep. The sea was running tremendously high and began engulfing her. The Manby rocket apparatus was mounted at the scene and succeeded in getting a line aboard the vessel at the second attempt. The three officers played leading parts in the rescue, helped by 21 coastguardmen, and took off the smack’s Master, Mate, one seaman and the two owners.’

Lieutenant Grandy was already in receipt of the Institution’s Gold Medal, only the third such awarded, for an earlier rescue on 23 November 1824, when he was a member of H.M. Coastguard at Portsmouth Harbour, in the following circumstances: ‘The transport ship Admiral Berkeley, on passage to Cape Coast Castle, South Africa, was wrecked at Portsmouth, Hampshire, with 195 persons on board - troops, officers, women and crew. Captain Peake directed and helped to land the troops and women, while Lieutenant Grandy and his Coastguard boat’s crew put out from the shore. The Captain spent six hours on the beach wholly exposed to the violence of the storm, drenched by the sea and in a stream of water dashing over the causeway. By 8 a.m., the survivors were in uncommon peril, as the ship filled from the dashing of the sea against the wall. Escape from the jib boom was not possible as the ship was driven along the beach for three hours until her masts were cut away. Lieutenants Festing and Walker made a raft and, with a crew from their ship, helped Lieutenant Grandy to land survivors. The rescue was completed without casualties.’