Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Royal National Lifeboat Institution, V.R., silver (Mr William Norworthy. Voted 2nd Feby. 1882) with ‘Second Service’ clasp, reverse inscribed, ‘Voted 1st March 1883’, with ‘double-dolphin’ suspension, good very fine £800-1000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A fine Collection of Life Saving Awards.

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‘The Silver Medal of the Institution, a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum, and £1 each to Mr William Norsworthy, Chief Officer of H.M. Coastguard at Carnarvon, and to police constable Henry Evans, of Carnarvon, for putting off in an open boat, and, at great risk, saving five of the crew of the brigantine Fritz von Gadow, of Barth, Germany, which had capsized off Carnarvon, during a whole gale from W.S.W. on the 28th November [1881].’ (ref. The Life-Boat, 1 August 1882).

‘The Second Service Clasp to Mr William Norsworthy, Chief Officer of H.M. Coastguard at Carnarvon, and £4 to four other other men, for putting off in a boat, at great risk - the boat being driven back four times - and saving the crew, consisting of one man and a boy, from the barge Neptune, of Carnarvon, which had dragged her anchor and stranded on a sandbank off Carnarvon, during a storm from the W.N.W. on the night of the 25th January [1883].’ (ref. The Life-Boat, 1 August 1883).

With copied sheets from The North Wales Express, and The Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald with articles relating to the rescue of 28 November 1881, and extracts from The Life-Boat relating to both rescues.