Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Captain H. J. A. Throckmorton, Royal Navy, who was commended by the Admiralty for his command of the sloop Sunflower in an engagement with an enemy submarine in November 1916

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (Lt. H. J. A. Throckmorton, R.N., H.M.S. Barrosa); British War and Victory Medals (Commr. H. J. A. Throckmorton, R.N.); Special Constabulary Long Service, G.V.R., coinage bust (Sub-Sect. Ldr. Herbert J. A. Throckmorton), together with a set of related miniature dress medals including the 1914-15 Star, generally good very fine (9) £400-450

Herbert John Anthony Throckmorton was born in June 1871, third son of Sir Richard Throckmorton, Bt., and was appointed a Probationary Sub. Lieutenant in the Royal Navy in October 1895. Advanced to Lieutenant in January 1898, he served in H.M.S. Barrosa from July 1897 until May 1901, including time off South Africa during the Boer War and, by the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, was serving ashore at Pembroke pending appointment to the cruiser Leviathan, in which ship he qualified for the 1914-15 Star before transferring to Rosyth as an Assistant Harbour Master, in which post he served until removing in a similar role to Scapa in May 1916. Then in September of the latter year, in the rank of Acting Commander, he took command of the sloop Sunflower, and it was in this latter capacity that he won a commendation from Their Lordships for his leadership during an engagement with an enemy submarine that November; so, too, in the same month, for the assistance Sunflower lent the Norwegian ship Gisla under difficult weather conditions. In May 1917, Throckmorton removed to the command of the monitor Havelock and he was still similarly employed by the end of hostilities, when he was ‘granted the rank of Captain in recognition of his services rendered during the War’ (his service record refers). The Captain died in January 1941.