Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare Sea Gallantry Medal group of six awarded to Canon R. J. P. Peyton-Burbery, Chaplain, Royal Navy, for gallantry in saving life at sea off Bermuda

Sea Gallantry Medal, Bronze, G.V.R. (Rev. Robert J. P. Peyton-Burbery, “Pollokshields” 8th September 1915); 1914-15 Star (Chapn., M.A., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Chapn., R.N.); Defence and War Medals, mounted as worn, together with his black silk stole richly embroidered with the badges of a Naval Chaplain, very fine and better (6) £900-1200

See colour plate.

S.G.M. presented 25 November 1916: Rev. Robert J. P. Peyton-Burbery, M.A., Chaplain, R.N., H.M.S. Suffolk.

‘On the 7th September 1915, the S.S. “Pollockshields” (of Sunderland) stranded on the reefs at Bermuda and during the night the vessel broke in two. On the following day a whaler manned by local fishermen was launched and managed to secure a line to the wreck. The boat then veered astern just clear of the surf and Mr. Peyton-Burbery swam over to her from the beach with a line. As it was impossible to take the boat alongside the wreck, the shipboard men were hauled through the water into the boat by means of a buoy with endless line attached, and the boat was then hauled towards the shore and the men were assisted ashore through the surf.’

Robert Jackson Peyton Peyton-Burbery was born on 27 October 1881, and educated at Christs’ College, Cambridge, gaining a B.A. in Special Theology. He was ordained as a Priest in 1908 by the Bishop of Winchester and became a Chaplain, R.N., on 22 June 1909. Peyton-Burbery served at sea as Chaplain to H.M. Ships Achilles 1909-10; Charybdis 1910; Astraea 1910-12; Euryalus 1912; Russell 1912-13; Suffolk 1913-16, and Crescent 1916-19. He retired from the Navy in 1928 and was Rector of St Mary’s, March, until 1968, and Rural Dean of March from 1937 until 1968 when he became Canon Emeritus of Ely, Cambridgeshire.

Peyton-Burbery volunteered for service again in the Second World War and was Assistant Chaplain of the Fleet 1939-41. At the Royal Military School at Thurlestone in 1944, when he was sixty-three, it was said that in spite of his age he was still playing rugby and hockey, and that few cadets could beat him at rope-climbing. He lived for some years in retirement in Hampshire, and until his death in 1977 he was believed to be the oldest living clergyman who had been a naval chaplain.