Auction Catalogue

23 September 2005

Starting at 11:00 AM

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

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

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Lot

№ 1058

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23 September 2005

Hammer Price:
£2,000

A rare group of five to Petty Officer J. Haigs, Royal Navy and H.M. Coast Guard

China 1842 (Petty Off., H.M.S. Conway), fitted with replacement silver bar suspension; Baltic 1854-55, unnamed; Crimea 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol, unnamed; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue (3041 4th.); Sweden, Life Saving Medal, Carl XV, ‘För Berömliga Gerningar’ (James Haigs, Chief-Boatman in Charge), naming in raised letters, 43mm., silver, contact marks, nearly very fine and better (5) £1200-1500

Sold with research which confirms his service as Yeoman of Signals aboard H.M.S. Conway in China, and in the same rate aboard H.M.S. Dauntless in the Baltic and Crimea.

James Haigs was employed by the Coast Guard at Rye, East Sussex, as Chief Boatman in Charge. He was awarded the Swedish Life Saving Medal in April 1867 for his part in the rescue of crew and passengers from the
Oradd the previous December. The Swedish steam corvette Oradd was wrecked near the lighthouse at Dungeness Point, near the town of Rye on the south-eastern coast of England. The crew and passengers numbered 134 persons, twelve of whom were unfortunately drowned by the upsetting of their boats, which broke adrift from the ship’s sides while the men were getting in. The rest of them were all saved by the skilful use of rocket apparatus, worked by the men of the Coast Guard, under the orders of Commander George Charles, R.N., who was in command of the Dungeness division. Commander Charles was awarded the medal in gold by the King of Sweden, while James Haigs and six others received large silver medals, and three others received smaller silver medals. According to an article by Leif Påhlsson in the Journal of the Life Saving Awards Research Society, Vol.13, these seven large silver medals are the only ones known to have been awarded of this type and size.