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

1914-15 Star (Dentl. Surg. R. W. List, R.N.V.R.) good very fine £60-80

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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On the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, there were no commissioned Naval Dental Surgeons, but rather 20 or so civilian dentists stationed at assorted Royal Naval shore establishments. In the first week of March 1915, conscious of this shortcoming, the Admiralty approved the appointment of 31 Temporary Surgeon Lieutenants (Dental) to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, List among them, and by the end of the War there were around 90 officers serving in a similar capacity.

Royal William List, who first registered as a dentist in England in August 1913, joined the hospital ship China on being appointed a Naval Dental Surgeon in March 1915, but ended the War back on terra firma at the “Wavy Navy’s” Crystal Palace H.Q. He subsequently entered private practice in London, being variously based at such well-known “medical addresses” as Portland Place, Cavendish Place and Harley Street, and was still operating in the early 1960s at Charterhouse Square in the city.