Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Sea Gallantry Medal, G.V.R., bronze (Alfred H. Jacob, “Delhi”, 13 Dec. 1911), very fine £300-350

Alfred Henry Jacob was born at Lowestoft, Suffolk, in 1888, and entered the Royal Navy as a boy rating in July 1903. Advanced to Able Seaman in October 1907, he joined the battleship Prince of Wales in December 1910, one year before winning his Sea Gallantry Medal, in bronze, for gallantry as a volunteer lifeboatman on the occasion of the loss of the S.S. Delhi off Cape Spartel, Morocco - among the passengers were the Duke and Duchess of Fife (The Princess Royal), and their two daughters, which only gave further urgency to a grave situation.

Difficulty being found in mustering Gibraltar’s lifeboat crew, a volunteer crew was taken from the Prince of Wales, under Commander Niles, R.N.R., among them Jacob. And his boat made five trips between the wreck and the shore, taking 10 or 12 passengers each time. Five members of the crew were washed overboard on one trip, but were saved, and on her last trip she was stove in against her own anchor - thus leaving her half full of water, following which she broached to and was pitched ashore badly damaged.

Jacob witnessed active service in the Great War, serving aboard the battle cruiser H.M.S. Queen Mary from August 1914 until August 1915, and the Birkenhead from November 1915 until coming ashore in March 1919, a period encompassing her part in the Battle of Jutland with the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron; sold with further details.