Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Stoker Petty Officer H. Smith, Royal Navy, who served in H.M.S. Lancaster during the Messina Earthquake rescue operations of 1908

1914-15 Star (307888, H. Smith, S.P.O., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (307888 H. Smith. S.P.O. R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 2nd issue, fixed suspension (307888 H. Smith. Sto. 1 H.M.S. Columbine.); Italy, Kingdom, Messina Earthquake Medal 1908, silver, unnamed as issued, edge bruise to last, generally very fine (5) £180-£220

Henry Smith, who was born on 1 July 1886 in Bethnal Green, London, entered naval service on 14 October 1904, seeing service in H.M.S. Lancaster in April 1908 to 1911, during which he was awarded the Messina Earthquake Medal by the Italian Government. He spent much of the Great War in patrol boats, before he was invalided from Chatham Naval Hospital in 1925 with tuberculosis.