Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An R.S.P.C.A. and National Canine Defence League ‘Dog-Saving’ group of four awarded to Leading Seaman A. Wastell, Royal Naval Reserve, for rescuing dogs from the cliffs at Whitby and Scarborough, 1930 and 1937

Royal Naval Reserve L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 2nd issue, fixed suspension (4490C. A. Wastell. L.S. R.N.R.); Rocket Apparatus L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (Alfred Wastell); R.S.P.C.A. Life Saving Medal, bronze (Alfred Wastell 1930), with Second Award Bar, this dated 1937, and integral top ‘For Humanity’ riband bar; National Canine Defence League Medal, silver, the reverse inscribed ‘To Alfred Wastell, R.N.R., for saving a Dog, 1937’, with top silver brooch bar, light contact marks, very fine and better (4) £300-400

Provenance: Mike Minton Collection, Buckland Dix & Wood, September 1994.

Alfred Wastell served in the Royal Naval Reserve ,and was awarded his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal on 26 July 1923, and his Rocket Apparatus Medal in the 1940s. He was awarded the R.S.P.C.A. Life Saving Medal for saving the life of a dog from a cliff above Scarborough in 1930, and received a Second Award Bar to his R.S.P.C.A. Medal, as well as the National Canine Defence League Medal in recognition of having risked his life to rescue a dog that was marooned on a ledge 200 feet below the East Cliff at Whitby, Yorkshire, on 28 March 1937. The Whitby Gazette gives the following account of the latter action:
‘Leading Seaman Wastell volunteered to be lowered down the face of the cliff to the ledge on which the dog was marooned, a distance of 200 feet. After several attempts and at great risk to himself, owing to loose portions of the cliff falling, he managed to reach the dog; he then had the very difficult task of getting the dog into a sack and to secure it to a line in such a manner that it could be hauled up with the minimum of discomfort to the dog. This he did in a very efficient and seamanlike manner, resulting in the dog being got to the top of the cliffs without injury. He then had to be hauled up himself and again faced the danger of falling portions of the cliffs which, after the heavy rains recently experienced, are very easily disturbed. Mr. Wastell, who is a member of the Whitby Branch of the “Coast Lifesaving Corps” has also been commended by the Board of Trade for the excellent manner in which he carried out this service. He also holds the bronze medal of the R.S.P.C.A. for the rescue of a dog under similar conditions on a former occasion.’