Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Leading Stoker 1st Class H. Waite, Royal Navy

China 1900, no clasp (H. Waite, Lg. Sto. 1Cl., H.M.S. Barfleur.); Coronation 1902, bronze, unnamed as issued, light contact marks, very fine (2) £240-£280

Henry Waite (alias Waight) was born in Portsmouth in July 1865. He enlisted into the Royal Navy in July 1890 serving first in the guard ship H.M.S. Asia as a Stoker Second Class. In July 1900 he was posted to the pre-dreadnought battleship H.M.S. Barfleur where he served with the ship’s company during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. This ship put landing parties ashore which were involved in the storming of the Taku forts and in relieving the foreign legations at Tientsin. During the Great War, having attained the rate of Chief Stoker, Waite saw service ashore with H.M.S. Victory and H.M.S. Fishgard. He was invalided out of the Navy in June 1919, receiving a Silver War Badge.