Auction Catalogue

30 March 2011

Starting at 10:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

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Lot

№ 596

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30 March 2011

Hammer Price:
£460

The mounted group of eight miniature dress medals attributed to Rear-Admiral S. Goodridge, Royal Navy

Order of the Indian Empire, gold and enamel, with gold top bar; Jubilee 1897, silver; Coronation 1902, silver; Delhi Durbar 1903, silver; Abyssinia 1867; Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, undated reverse, 1 clasp, Suakin 1884; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp; Khedive’s Star 1882, mounted as worn, some with contact marks, nearly very fine and better (8)
£300-350

Walter Somerville Goodridge was born on 30 March 1849 and entered the Royal Navy in 1862. He was appointed a Lieutenant in 1872 and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1872, Commander in 1885 and Captain in 1892. He retired as a Rear-Admiral in 1904.

Goodridge served in
Octavia during the Abyssinian Expedition 1867. He was attached to the Royal Observatory Greenwich and to the Expedition to the Kerguelen Islands for observing the transit of Venus, May 1873-June 1875. He was then Senior Lieutenant of Vestal and London on the Gold Coast of Africa, January 1879-January 1884, during which time over 120 prizes, with several hundred slaves, were captured; was appointed Acting Commander on the massacre of Captain Brownrigg and boat’s crew of London by Arab slavers; was employed in the Naval Transport Department in connection with the Expedition to Suakin in February 1884 until May 1885; promoted for this service he was appointed Principle Transport Officer in Egypt, July 1885 to April 1888. Goodridge twice received the thanks of the Government of India for the great personal interest taken in the training of the officers of the Royal Indian Marine; commanded Isis at the Jubilee Review 1897; was appointed Director RIM March 1898. Was appointed Hon ADC to the Viceroy of India, October 1898-March 1904, received the thanks of Her late Majesty’s Government, the Government of India, the Admiralty and the Viceroy for the very prompt despatch of the Indian Contingent to South Africa at the commencement of the Boer War, in September 1899; mentioned in Lord Robert’s final despatch of September 1901 and was subsequently awarded the C.I.E.; received the thanks of three Commanders-in Chief for the prompt assistance rendered to ships of the East Indian Station; received the thanks of the Government of India for the despatch of the China Expedition 1900 and the Somaliland Expedition 1903-4; represented the Royal Indian Marine at the Coronation in 1902 and at the Delhi Durbar in 1903. On retiring from Directorship of the RIM in March 1904, received the thanks of the Government of India for service rendered to India and especially for the excellent arrangements made for the despatch of the three expeditions to South Africa, China and Somaliland, also the thanks of the Admiralty for services rendered to the Navy during the period of Directorship in India.

Rear-Admiral Goodridge’s full-size medals were sold at Glendining’s, 24 June 1992.