Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria. Including a superb collection of medals to the King’s German Legion, Police Medals from the Collection of John Tamplin and a small collection of medals to the Irish Guards

Eight: Able Seaman H. Tuck, Royal Navy

East and West Africa 1887-1900, 2 clasps, Benin 1897, Sierra Leone 1898-99 (Boy 1 Cl., H.M.S. St. George): Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (Ord., H.M.S. Monarch); 1914-15 Star (184382 A.B., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (184382 A.B., R.N.); Defence; Royal Navy L.S.& G.C., G.V.R. 1st issue (184382 A.B., H.M.S. Lancaster); Training Ship Exmouth, Special Good Conduct Medal, silver (H. Tuck), generally very fine (8) £350-400

Sold with the recipient’s original Certificate of Service, typed life-story, copies of birth and death certificates, other research details and reproduction photographs of H.M. Ships St. George, Blonde and Monarch.

Horace Tuck was born in 1878 at the workhouse at Horslydown near Tower Bridge, London. Initially employed as a Corridor Attendant (Messenger) at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, he entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in 1895. He served as a Boy 1st Class aboard H.M.S. St. George in the expedition to Benin City 1897 and as an Ordinary Seaman (promoted in 1898) aboard H.M.S. Blonde in the expedition to Sierra Leone 1898-99. He then served in the Boer War as an Ordinary Seaman of H.M.S. Monarch. Promoted Able Seaman in 1908, he transferred to the Royal Fleet Reserve in 1910. Recalled to the Navy in 1914, he served as an Able Seaman aboard H.M. Ships Goliath, Hannibal, Crescent, Pembroke and Lancaster during the war years. In 1920 he was awarded a Royal Fleet Reserve gratuity of £100.