Orders, Decorations and Medals

Royal National Lifeboat Institution, Sir William Hillary, bronze (Alfred Cottam. Voted 10th February 1938) with uniface ‘double dolphin’ suspension, mounted as worn, in case of issue, extremely fine £400-500

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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Ref. Spink Exhibition 1985, No. 74.

‘January 15th 1938 - Tenby, Pembrokeshire. About 4.30 in the morning the coastguard at Tenby, Pembrokeshire, reported that a small steamer was in distress. She was the Fermanagh, of Belfast, bound light for Llanelly. A gale was blowing from the south-west, with frequent gusts at hurricane force. The sea was very rough ... At 5.15 the motor lifeboat John R. Webb was launched. The coxswain was away from the station and the second coxswain took command. When she reached the Fermanagh, the lifeboat found her aground on the Woodhouse Rocks. .... Some time after this ... the lifeboat saw that the Fermanagh had come off the rocks. She was drifting before the gale, her stern sinking, her bows in the air ... The lifeboat crew could see men aboard her. The second coxswain at once took the lifeboat alongside, handling her with great skill in the heavy seas. She was there only a few seconds. In that time the eight men of the Fermanagh’s crew had jumped aboard her. Her master was not among them. Before the lifeboat arrived he had launched the ship’s boat, and got aboard her to fend her off, while the crew followed but he had been swept away. .... the lifeboat made at once for Tenby, arriving at 8.30. After landing the rescued men, she put out again to search for the master, but could find no trace of him. She returned again at 10.45 a.m. She had been out for five and a half hours and her crew had been severely shaken in the heavy seas. They had been in continual danger of being washed overboard and two of them were nearly lost when the lifeboat dropped into a deep trough. The weather was so bad that the lifeboat could not be rehoused until 4.15 in the afternoon. ...’ (Ref. Minutes of the Committee Meeting).

For their gallant services Second Coxswain John Rees was awarded the R.N.L.I. Silver Medal and Mechanic Alfred Cottam was awarded the Bronze. The remaining seven members of the crew of the Tenby Lifeboat were awarded the ‘Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum’.

The ‘5th’ type of the R.N.L.I. Medal bearing the head of Sir William Hillary Bt. on the obverse, was introduced in 1937.