Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Private A. J. Farrington, Royal Marines Light Infantry

1914-15 Star (Ply. 7957 Pte., R.M.L.I.); British War and Victory Medals (Ply.7967 Pte., R.M.L.I.); Russia, Medal for Zeal, Nicholas II, small silver, unnamed, on incorrect ‘St. George’ ribbon, good very fine (4) £400-500

Alfred John Farrington was born in Liphook, Hampshire on 24 July 1877. A Labourer by occupation, he enlisted into the Royal Marines on 1 June 1896. He was discharged on 10 June 1908 having completed his period of service and enrolled into the R.F.R. With the start of the War he was recalled to service. He served on the old pre-dreadnought battleship H.M.S. Jupiter, September 1914-May 1915.

In January 1915 the Admiralty received a request for assistance from the Russian Government, their icebreaker used to keep open the passage to Archangel in the White Sea had broken down. In response the Royal Navy sent out the Tyne Guard Ship H.M.S. Jupiter, an old Majestic-class battleship. She departed for Archangel in February 1915, freeing en route a number of vessels stuck in the ice, occasionally by using explosive charges. She, too, sometimes became icebound, but still managed to make a major impression on the problem, improving the safe passage of numerous vessels, many of them laden with highly important war materials, among them the S.S. Thracia. The latter was taken in tow after the use of explosive charges to free her. Throughout these operations it was not unusual for the temperature to fall as low as minus 20 degrees, a hard test indeed on the morale and well being of the Jupiter’s crew. Her mission completed by May 1915, the Tzar expressed his gratitude by the presentation of a variety of Russian Honours and Awards to her crew. For his part in the operations, Farrington was awarded the Russian Medal for Zeal. With copied service paper