Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Shipwright Lieutenant S. T. Sadler, Royal Navy

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 1 clasp, Defence of Ladysmith (148053 Carp.-Mate, H.M.S. Powerful); 1914-15 Star (Ch. Carpr., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Cd. Shpt., R.N.), light contact marks and edge nicks, very fine or better (4) £500-600

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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Samuel Thomas Sadler was born at Gosport, Hampshire in February 1866 and entered the Royal Navy as a Shipwright in February 1889. He subsequently witnessed active service in the Boer War, being among those men landed from H.M.S. Powerful for service in the Naval Brigade at the defence of Ladysmith, where his skills as a Carpenter’s Mate were no doubt in demand for the upkeep of the wooden carriages of the Brigade’s assorted guns, carriages that the ship’s carpenters had made in the first place during Powerful’s voyage to South Africa. Indeed it is interesting to speculate whether Sadler’s advancement to Carpenter in June 1900 was in recognition of special services during the defence of Ladysmith.

By the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, Sadler was serving aboard the battleship St. Vincent, flagship of the 1st Battle Squadron, and, having been advanced to Chief Carpenter (Commissioned Shipwright) in June 1915, was present in her at the Battle of Jutland. He ended the War with an appointment in the submarine depot ship Maidstone and was advanced to Shipwright Lieutenant on his retirement in February 1920. Granted a Greenwich Hospital Pension in March 1943, Sadler died in October 1947.