Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part I)

Pair: Paymaster Rear-Admiral C. A. R. F. Dunbar, Royal Navy, who received an Admiralty letter of commendation following the loss of his ship, the gun boat “Lily”, in the St. Lawrence in 1889

China 1900, no clasp (Fl. Paymr., R.N., H.M.S. Barfleur); British War Medal 1914-20 (Payr. In Ch., R.N.), together with related dress miniature C.B.E., silver-gilt and enamel, in Garrard & Co. leather case, and tunic riband bar, generally good very fine (3)
£400-500

Charles Augustus Royer Flood Dunbar, who was born in June 1849, entered the Royal Navy as an Assistant Clerk in December 1866. Advanced to Assistant Paymaster in December 1870, he served in the same rank aboard the Jumna in the Red Sea, during the Suakin operations of 1885, but did not qualify for entitlement to the Egypt Medal.

In September 1889, having been advanced to Paymaster, he was wrecked in the gun boat Lily in the St. Lawrence, the survivors receiving the ‘expression of their Lordships approval of the conduct of officers and men in trying circumstances’:

‘The gunboat Lily was commissioned at Bermuda in January 1888, under Commander Gerald W. Russell, as a unit of the North American squadron. On 16 September 1889, the vessel put out from St. Margaret’s Bay, Newfoundland, with the intention of crossing the Straits of Belle Isle to Forteau Bay on the coast of Labrador. The weather was boisterous but clear at the outset but later a dense fog came on aggravated by the smoke of a forest fire on the Labrador shore. The steam whistle of the lighthouse on Point d’Amour was plainly heard on board Lily but owing to the strong on-shore wind the sound seemed two or three miles distant. At about 6 p.m. the navigating officer was in the act of taking soundings when the breakers on shore became audible. The ship was under sail and steam and the engines were immediately reversed but too late to save the vessel which crashed on the rocks and heeled over to starboard, breaking her back. The boats were launched but after three had capsized in succession it was left to the crew to get ashore as best they could. Fortunately the water about the rocks was shallow and nearly everybody got ashore in safety. The weather was bitterly cold and the men suffered greatly from exposure. When the roll-call was made it was found that seven men had lost their lives’ (A Dictionary of Disasters at Sea refers).Advanced to Staff Paymaster in August 1893, and to Fleet Paymaster in October 1897, Dunbar went on to witness active service off China in 1900 in the Barfleur. Then, having retired in the rank of Paymaster-in- Chief in June 1908, he was recalled on the advent of hostilities in August 1914, when he was re-employed ashore as a Paymaster Captain. On this occasion, on returning to the Retired List, Dunbar did so as a Paymaster Rear-Admiral with a C.B.E., the latter having been gazetted in January 1919.

Sold with a superb original photographic archive, late Victorian to Edwardian period, comprising ships and ship’s officers, large format, mounted on card, including H.M. Ships Active (and her officers), Emerald, Excellent (officers on the gunnery course, 1903), Jumna, Magicienne (and her officers), and a dozen or so scenes pertinent to the Lily’s time on the Newfoundland station, with panoramic views of Halifax and St. John’s, etc., pictures of the ship and some of her crew, together with views of her wreck, and original Admiralty letter addressed to the recipient, in which it is stated that the officers and men of the Lily displayed ‘exemplary conduct under the trying circumstances of the wreck of that ship’, dated 30 October 1889; together with a fine quality leather bound photograph album, the title page inscribed in ink, ‘Charles A.R.F. Dunbar’, with views of Malta (and H.M.S. Caledonia and her officers), Egypt, Gibraltar, Greece, Italy, Palestine and Sicily, in addition to views from home, including Devonshire, Sussex and Scotland, in total upward of 90 images, and including pressed flowers and the occasional ink drawing, etc.

Also see Lot 1072 for his son’s awards.