Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Royal National Institute for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, G.IV.R., silver (Lieut. Jas. Pratt. R.N. Voted Dec. 17. 1840) with eyelet and ring suspension, nearly very fine £600-£800

James Pratt entered the Navy on 13 July 1808, and passed his examination in 1815. He served on board the Britomart 10, Captain Robert Riddell, at the bombardment of Algiers, 27 August 1816. He obtained his commission as Lieutenant on 27 May 1825, and was employed in the Coast Blockade, as Supernumerary-Lieutenant of the Hyperion 42, Captain William James Mingaye, from 27 July following until March 1831; and has since been in command of a station in the Coast Guard. In 1840 he received a silver medal from the Shipwreck Institution, and the thanks of the Royal Humane Society, for his exertions in saving the crews of three vessels wrecked on the beach between Brighton and Rottingdean. These were the brig Mary , the schooner Sir John Seale, and the brig Offerton. The crew of the Offerton were saved by the efforts of the Coastguards at Black Rock. In recognition of this the Shipwreck Institution of London presented their gold medal to Captain Marsh and their silver medal to Lieutenants Newnham, Pratt and Prior. The event was recorded in the Minutes of the Brighton Branch as follows: ‘the sea broke most furiously against the High Cliff completely covering the Beach... At this spot Captain Marsh with some of his men were twice lowered by ropes from the top of the Cliff to a slight ridge at imminent peril of their own lives, [and] were enabled to seize hold of the men belonging to the vessel as they were washed out of their boat which was swamped immediately afterwards,’

Pratt’s N.G.S. medal for Algiers is part of the Douglas-Morris Collection at the Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth.