Orders, Decorations and Medals

Shanghai Municipality Jubilee 1893, silver, the reverse officially engraved, ‘Capt. C. J. Norcock, R.N.’, suspension ring slightly bent and one or two edge bruises, otherwise good very fine and rare to a Naval officer £400-500

Charles James Norcock was born in Plymouth in September 1847, the second son of Commander John Henry Norcock, R.N., and, having attended the Royal Naval School at New Cross and Britannia, was appointed a Sub. Lieutenant in 1867. Mentioned in despatches for his part in the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882, when he was employed as the Torpedo Lieutenant aboard H.M.S. Hecla, he was subsequently employed ashore and present at Tel-el-Kebir, winning a second “mention” and being advanced to Commander. Further active service followed in the Sudan operations of 1884, when, as Commander of the Hecla, he was present in the Suakin operations.

Following his advancement to Captain in 1889, Norcock enjoyed a succession of senior appointments, among them Commodore 2nd Class in command of the S.E. coast of the America Station and Assistant to the Admiral Superintendent of the Naval Reserve 1899-1902, following which he was placed on the Retired List as a Rear-Admiral. Soon afterwards, however, he was appointed to the Admiralty Volunteer Committee, in which capacity he served until 1904, and he received his final promotion in 1907, when he became a Vice-Admiral. Norcock died in March 1933; sold with a photocopy of a photograph of the ships’ officers of H.M.S. Iron Duke, taken during her tour of the Far East in the mid-1870s.