Orders, Decorations and Medals

An interesting Boxer Rebellion and Great War service group of four awarded to Chief Petty Officer W. H. Crosse, Royal Navy, who rescued Captain (afterwards Admiral of the Fleet Sir) John Jellicoe, after he had been wounded by Chinese fire: he ‘came and cut away the sleeve of my tunic and shirt and helped me behind a house ... Dr. Sibbald came up and told me that he thought I was finished’ (Jellicoe’s diary, June 1900, refers)

China 1900, 1 clasp, Relief of Pekin (P.O. 1 Cl., H.M.S. Centurion); British War and Victory Medals (127826 C.P.O., R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., V.R., narrow suspension (P.O. 1 Cl., H.M.S. Cambridge), the first and last with occasional edge bruising and contact marks, nearly very fine, the Great War awards good very fine (4) £400-500

Walter Henry Crosse was born in Totnes, Devon in April 1869 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in June 1884. Having attended the Gunnery School H.M.S. Cambridge as a Leading Seaman in 1892-93, he was advanced to Petty Officer 1st Class in the battleship Howe in 1895, and thereafter specialised in gunnery. Indeed it was as a Gunnery Instructor that he was ordered to join the Centurion on the China Station in April 1900, in which appointment he served until transferring to the Hermione at the end of the year, but not before seeing action in the Boxer Rebellion, and in particular in the attack on the village of Peitsang on 21 June 1900, when Bluejackets under Jellicoe gave supporting fire and participated in a bayonet charge:

‘Our men went on in good style and the enemy fell back behind a second village to a bank behind from which they poured a hot fire on us, and a party on the opposite bank also fired heavily ... I came along on the right near the river and at the end of the village where the open ground began again found the French and a few of our men remaining behind the houses. The fire at the corner was very hot. I tried to get the French to come on, and then went on with my own men following. As I cleared the corner I was hit in the left side of the chest, the shock turning me half round. I thought my left arm had gone. I sat down on a stone, and Crosse, the Gunnery Instructor, came up and cut away the sleeve of my tunic and shirt and helped me behind a house where I lay down. After a bit Dr. Sibbald came up and bandaged the wound and told me he thought I was finished. I made my will on a bit of paper and gave it to my Coxswain. I was spitting up a lot of blood and thought the wound probably mortal, so asked Pickthorn, who came over after a short time to rebandage me, if this was so. He said it was very dangerous and injected morphia. This stopped the internal bleeding. Harrison Smith, our Chaplain, came along afterwards ... ’ (Jellicoe’s relevant diary extract, reprinted in The Life of John Rushworth Earl of Jellicoe, by Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon, refers).

As evidenced by accompanying letters - and a gilt inscribed piece of leather - Jellicoe was patently extremely grateful to Crosse for having pulled him out of the line of fire. Indeed he regretted having missed an opportunity to get him presented with his China Medal by H.M. the King, being unaware that Crosse was by then back in the U.K. He did, however, recommend him for advancement to Chief Petty Officer, in which ambition he was successful, Crosse being appointed to that rate in October 1903. Indeed Jellicoe was still in contact with Crosse as late as 1907, when he tried to secure his ex-shipmate a cottage on Lord Sudeley’s estate, following his discharge - although this proved impossible, he was able to report that ‘there is every chance of your getting a job from Capt. Walker to whom I have spoken about you’.

Recalled in August 1914, Crosse won entitlement to the British War & Victory Medals and was demobilised in February 1919.

Sold with three original letters to the recipient from Jellicoe, laid on card and restored, the first dated 7 April 1902, and referring to his regret at having failed to get him his China Medal presented to him by the King at Devonport and to his recommendation for his advancement to Chief Petty Officer; the second, dated 18 February 1903, returning to the question of his promotion (‘If you don’t get it, let me know and I will try again when Sir E. Seymour goes to Plymouth. He is sure to grant it ... ’); and the third, dated 23 March 1907, referring to the impossibilty of getting a cottage on Lord Sudeley’s estate but at least a strong chance of employment under Captain Walker; together with a piece of leather, once the upper cover of a tobacco pouch, gilt inscribed, ‘Walter H. Crosse from J. R. Jellicoe, H.M.S. Centurion, 1900’; and two photographs.