Orders, Decorations and Medals

Royal Humane Society, large silver medal (Do. Banks arte ob vitas benigne restitvtas 1805) unmounted, a price, ‘£2-5-0’ scratched on the obverse right field, minor marks elsewhere, very fine £180-220

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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Collection

Ref. Spink Exhibition 1985, No. 4.

‘Three men, viz. J. Johnson, D. Bury, and A. Grassini, were brought on-board H.M.S. the Pearl, apparently drowned, from their having been in the water upwards of half an hour, owing to the boats upsetting off South Sea Castle. I immediately applied those remedies which are most approved of, and as far as the nature of the service would permit, and had the happiness to recover all the brave sailors, in the manner expressed in my letter to the R.H.S. of the 17th. W. H. Banks, Surgeon’s Mate, H.M.S. Pearl. Borough of Portsmouth. Sworn this 24th December, 1804 before John Carter, Mayor’.

Mr Banks is listed as being presented an Honorary Medallion of the Royal Humane Society in the Gentleman’s Magazine of April 1805.