Auction Catalogue

25 September 2008

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

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Lot

№ 382

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25 September 2008

Hammer Price:
£1,600

Three: John Martin, Yeoman of the Ewry and Groom of the Great Chamber in the Lord Chamberlain’s Department, who served in the Royal Household for more than 65 years under King William IV and Queen Victoria

Royal Household Faithful Service Medal, V.R., with additional ‘10’ year bar (To Mr John Martin, Yeoman of the Ewry, for Faithful Services to The Queen and Her Predecessor King William IV during 55 Years. 1886); Jubilee 1887, clasp, 1897, silver; Coronation 1902, bronze, mounted court style, good very fine (3) £800-1000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Long Service Medals from the Collection formed by John Tamplin.

View Long Service Medals from the Collection formed by John Tamplin

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Collection

Of the 139 medals awarded this is the greatest period of service recorded on a Victorian Faithful Service Medal; only four others record 50 years or more. Forty-three medals had one 10 year bar, and nine had two 10 year bars.

John Martin was born in about 1819 and was employed in the Royal Household for many years. On 24 November 1885, at Buckingham Palace, he wrote a statement of services which is now held in the Victoria Faithful Service Medal Register in the Royal Archives at Windsor. John Martin stated that he was employed in the Green Office from 1831 to 1837; was appointed Coal Porter in August 1837, Head Coal Porter in August 1839, and Yeoman of the Ewry on 1 October 1865. The ewry was responsible for the provision and storage of linen for the royal tables and, when originally established in 1660, to ‘serve up water in the Silver Ewers after Dinner, whence the Office has its Name’. On 18 June 1881, he was appointed Groom of the Great Chamber in the Lord Chamberlain’s Department.

Martin was awarded the Victoria Faithful Service Medal in 1886, and ten years later he was awarded a bar to his medal. The bar was affixed by the medalists, Messrs Wyon, and Martin acknowledged its receipt afterwards in a letter from Buckingham Palace dated 13 February 1896. He was a recipient of the 1887 Jubilee Medal in silver, and subsequently received the 1897 clasp ten years later. Martin lived in Stanley Street, Pimlico, and latterly in Cornwall Road, St George’s Square, where he died on 28 June 1903, aged 84.