Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Royal Humane Society, small bronze medal (successful) (Lieut. L. B. Denman R.N. 4th Mch. 1887) edge bruise, very fine £120-160

Lancelot B. Denman served as a Sub.-Lieutenant on the Minotaur during the Egyptian War of 1882, for which he was awarded the Egypt Medal 1882 and the Khedive’s Star. As a Lieutenant on the Raleigh, stationed off Sierra Leone, he together with Quartermaster James Gill rescued Ordinary Seaman William Stokes, R.N. from drowning:

‘On 4 March 1887 at 5.45 p.m., William Stokes fell from the main top striking the netting and glancing overboard, he cut his head in the fall and would have sunk before a boat could have reached him. Lieutenant Denman and Quartermaster James Gill jumped overboard from the accommodation ladder, swam to his rescue and supported him until all three were picked up by a boat. The harbour in which he fell was infested by sharks’. Both Denman and Gill were awarded the R.H.S. Medal in Bronze (Taken from R.H.S. records, Case No. 23,449).

The Naval Who’s Who also records that Lieutenant Denman together with Commander The Hon. Curzon-Howe jumped into the sea in the Bight of Benin to rescue a carpenter who had fallen overboard; sold with copied research.