Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Lieutenant A. H. Thomson, Royal Navy

South Africa 1877-79, no clasp (A.B., H.M.S. Himalaya), single initial ‘A.’ and surname spelt ‘Thompson’; Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, dated reverse, 1 clasp, Alexandria 11th July (Capt. F. Top, H.M.S. Superb); British War Medal 1914-20 (Ch. Bosn., R.N.); Khedive’s Star 1882, contact marks, otherwise generally very fine and better and a rare combination of awards (4) £400-450

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals for Services at Sea from the Collection of the Late Oliver Stirling Lee.

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Alexander Hutcheson Thomson was born at Liff in Forfar in August 1858 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in August 1872. He subsequently witnessed active service in the troopship H.M.S. Himalaya off South Africa in 1877-78, and aboard the Superb during the Egypt operations of 1882, including the bombardment of Alexandria.

Presumably the award of a £10 wounds’ pension - later commuted - to him in August 1902, when he retired, was related to one of these theatres of war. Recalled as a Chief Boatswain in October 1914, he served at the training establishment Fisgard for the remainder of the War and received backdated promotion to Lieutenant (Retired) in November 1918, in recognition of the same. Thomson’s record also reveals that he was awarded a Greenwich Hospital Pension in October 1935 and that he died in January 1939, aged 80 years.