Auction Catalogue

25 September 2008

Starting at 10:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations and Medals

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

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Lot

№ 48

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25 September 2008

Hammer Price:
£460

A Royal Humane Society Medal awarded to Midshipman Frederick W. Mant, Royal Navy, one of two awarded to him for successful rescues on three separate occasions

Royal Humane Society,
large silver medal (Reg. Soc. Hum. F. W. Mant Mid. R.N. vitam ob servatam dono dat 1833) unmounted, very fine £300-350

Ex Needes Collection 1939 and Edrington Collection 1980.

Frederick Woods Mant was born in Crawley, Southampton, on 23 August 1809 and was educated privately and at Charter House before entering the Royal Navy. Whilst in the Royal Navy he was awarded two Royal Humane Society Medals in silver. The first (the above medal) was awarded whilst he was serving on the
Ocean and was aboard the hulk Swiftsure at Sheerness:

‘On 14th February 1832, at about four o’clock, William Fisher fell overboard from a boat which was lying outside the water-tank alongside this ship. Mr Mant, hearing a boy scream, and seeing the boatman endeavouring to lay hold of him, observing also that he would be inevitably drowned before the boat could be cast off, as the tide had carried him far astern, with great promptitude jumped overboard, and at the moment Fisher had become insensible, with his head under water, he seized him and swam with him to the tank, on board which they were taken; and thus William Fisher’s life was preserved’. (Ref. R.H.S. Case No. 12,269)’.

The second and third rescues, taking place at Bermuda and Sierra Leone respectively, resulted in the award of a second R.H.S. Medal.

‘An officer belonging to H.M. schooner
Pickle, in February 1835, jumped overboard in a fit of insanity at Bermuda, at ten o’clock p.m. Mr F. W. Mant, midshipman, instantly jumped after him, and after a great struggle, a long swim, and a deep dive, he rescued him. He was a strong man, perfectly deranged at the time, and not only dived twice, but drew Mr Mant down with him. Another letter states that Mr Mant was just recovering from a sprained ankle, being the only ill effect of a subsequent heroic adventure, wherin he again boldly hazarded his life to save two seamen from drowning, the particulars of which are as follows:-

On the 24th March 1836, on returning on board the
Cassador (a prize captured by the Waterwitch) at Sierra Leone, a severe tornado came on and capsized the boat at the moment the men were mooring her astern. The night was awful , and finding the poor fellows could swim but little, Mr Mant took the tag-line in his hand, and plunged overboard to their relief. With much difficulty he succeeded in supporting the nearest of them, and encouraged the other to keep up his spirits. They were, however, ten minutes in the water before the tempest would allow their voices to be heard. The sea, it appears, was too much disturbed to allow the sharks to see them. At last, and at the moment their strength was giving way, they heard voices and oars, but it was too dark to distinguish anything. A large dark object passed over Mr Mant, which he thought was an alligator, but it turned out to be the galley upon her first reaching them. They were insensible when taken out of the water, and some time elapsed before their recovery.

The honorary medallion of the Royal Humane Society was presented to Mr Mant for his courage and humanity in 1833’.

After leaving the Royal Navy, Mant trained for the church and gained a B.A. in 1844. Ordained a Deacon at Ripon in 1841 and a Priest at Dublin in the same year, he was appointed Rector of Armoy, Co. Antrim, 1845-51; Vicar of Stanford, Norfolk, 1851-58; Vicar of Woodmancote with Popham, 1858-70, and Vicar of Egham, 1870-79. He was the author of
The Rubi, 1840; Reginald Vere, 1848; The Midshipman, 1854; Saxon Ballads and Lays, 1857, and Memorials of Naval Life - copy of original letters for private circulation. ‘The Midshipman’ is an autobiography of his life in the Royal Navy and includes the above three lifesaving episodes.

The above medal was the subject of two articles by Bill Fevyer -
Always be Polite to Librarians, in the L.S.A.R.S. Journal, No.18, p.88-91, and On Still Being Polite to Librarians, L.S.A.R.S. Journal No.33, p.16-17.

Sold with a quantity of copied extracts from
The Midshipman and Memorials of Naval Life and other research. Also with two copied photographs of the recipient.

A 2nd type medal, the dies prepared by Benedetto Pistrucci (1794 - 1855), his name appearing in small letters in the obverse exergue.