The Douglas-Morris Collection of Naval Medals (Part 2)

Three: India General Service 1854-95, 2 clasps, Burma 1885-7, Burma 1887-89 (2d Gde. Officer T. J. Walker, H.M.I.M.S. “Sir W. Peel”); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (Lieut. T. J. Walker, R.I.M.S. Clive); China 1900, no clasp (Lieut. T. J. Walker, R.I.M.S. Clive) generally good very fine (3)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Douglas-Morris Collection of Naval Medals.

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Thomas Walker was born in Melbourne, Australia, on 19 April 1863. He was educated at King's School, Peterborough, and trained aboard the ‘Worcester’ Nautical College. He was Apprenticed in the New Zealand Shipping Company for four years and served for one year in the Company's ships with a 2nd Mates Certificate. He joined the Indian Marine as a 3rd Grade Officer aboard TENASSERIM on 30 March 1884, transferred to CANNING on 1 August 1884 and was promoted to 2nd Grade Officer on 1 April 1886. He served in this rank aboard SIR WILLIAM PEEL (April 1886), CLIVE (April 1887), SIR WILLIAM PEEL (August 1887), and JABOONA (May 1888). Service in these vessels in connection with the military operations in Burma 1885-89 resulted in the award of the India General Service Medal with clasps ‘Burma 1885-87’ and ‘Burma 1887-89’. He served next aboard ENTERPRIZE (July 1888) and CLIVE (August 1888). He was promoted to 1st Grade Officer on 1 October 1888, and then served aboard the following ships: CLIVE (October 1888), CANNING (July 1890), CLIVE (September 1890), and LAWRENCE (April 1891). Promoted to the recently introduced rank of Lieutenant on 26 November 1892, he elected to transfer to the newly created Defence Squadron. He subsequently served in the rank of Lieutenant aboard CLIVE (January 1894), WARREN HASTINGS (May 1895), DALHOUSIE (October 1895), and was again aboard the troopship WARREN HASTINGS when she was wrecked off St Phillipe on 14 January 1897.

One would hardly look to the unpopular business of peacetime trooping for tales of bravery, but the loss of the Indian Transport, WARREN HASTINGS, in 1897 occasioned a ‘shining example of that combination of discipline and courage in the face of death that we call heroism’. The WARREN HASTINGS went ashore in a gale off Reunion Island in the dark hours of 14 January 1897, an eruption of the volcano of Fournaise having so deflected her compasses as to put her eight miles off her course. She had a ship's company of 240 and carried over 1,000 troops with their wives and families.

Although the ship was lying over at an angle of 45 degrees and was being battered by a heavy surf, the ship's company went to their stations and the troops fell in as if on parade; the engine room staff stayed below, opening all the escape vales and even, for a time, restoring the electric light which had been extinguished as the ship struck. Much credit was given to the Engineroom Officers and Ratings for remaining at their posts until finally driven out by the inrush of water, which washed out their fires and drove them on deck.

Two of the ship's Officers went over the side into the surf and gained the rocks, where they rigged ropes and a canvas chute. The ship's company and troops, most of them standing up to their waists in water then got the women and children ashore. Although only a few yards separated the ship from the shore, the surf and a powerful undertow made those few yards perilous in the extreme. Officers and Men who had themselves reached the safety of the rocks repeatedly waded back into the surf, carrying lines to those who could not swim and, by daylight, all but two of the total complement of 1246 had been got ashore; the two who were lost being seamen who were caught in the surf and pulled under before they could be reached.

He served next as Supernumerary aboard CANNING (February 1897), MAYO (March 1897), and CLIVE (April 1897) and again appointed to CANNING in April 1897, having Temporary Command on two separate occasions. He was appointed to CLIVE in September 1899 and whilst in this ship saw service in both the Boer and China Wars, and was awarded the Queen's South Africa and 3rd China War medals. He next joined CANNING (April 1901), COMET (January 1903) and DALHOUSIE (July 1903), and retired on 1 May 1904 after 20 years service.