Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Royal National Lifeboat Institution, V.R., silver (Peter Kavanagh, Voted 4th Jany. 1866), double dolphin suspension, minor edge bruising, nearly extremely fine £280-320

26 December 1865: The Liverpool ship Tenessarian was wrecked on the Arklow Bank off the coast of Co. Wicklow, Ireland, during a northerly gale and began to break up. Both Arklow and Wicklow lifeboats launched, but, when the Arklow Peake lifeboat Arundel Venables arrived, the casualty’s hull was totally submerged and her mainmast had been carried away. All survivors were lashed to the fore-rigging ; two had already perished. Coxswain Kavanagh took the lifeboat in among the wreckage and brought off 34 survivors by lines. The award also took into account ‘the repeated brave and zealous services at the saving of 82 lives on several occasions during a period of nearly ten years’.