Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A R.H.S. Medal and R.N.L.I. Medal group of four to Captain O. S. Cameron, Royal Navy

Baltic 1854-55, unnamed; China 1857-60, no clasp, unnamed; Royal Humane Society, small silver medal (successful), (Lieut. Orford S. Cameron, H.M.S. “Steady”, 25 Aug. 1861); Royal National Lifeboat Institution, V.R., silver (Commander Orford S. Cameron, R.N., Voted 1st Feby. 1877), with uniface ‘dolphin’ suspension, each medal with a silver ribbon buckle, generally good very fine (4) £750-850

Ex Christies, 23 February 1982 and Spink, 7 November 1995.

R.H.S. Silver Medal, ‘On the night of the 25th August 1861, Henry Reade, private of marines, accidently fell into the sea at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and would in all probability have been drowned but for the prompt and praiseworthy conduct of Lieutenant Orford S. Cameron, of H.M. gun-vessel Steady, who immediately jumped overboard, swam to his assistance, and reached him just as he was sinking, quite unconscious, and brought him to a stage lying alongside the wharf’.

R.N.L.I. Silver Medal, ‘Commander Orford Summerville Cameron, Commander, R.N., H.M. Coastguard, Newcastle, Co. Down.’ ‘3 December 1876: During a strong south-easterly wind and very heavy sea, the Maryport brigantine Fame was wrecked off Newcastle, Co. Down, Northern Ireland. With two of his men, Commander Cameron put off in the Coastguard punt and saved the crew of four’.

Captain Orford Summerville Cameron was the son of General Sir William Gordon Cameron, G.C.B., V.D. Joining the Royal Navy as a Cadet in 1850, he was made a Sub-Lieutenant in 1856 and promoted to Lieutenant in 1858. He served with the fleet in the operations in the Baltic, 1854-56 and was in action against pirates in the Gulf of Tonkin, 1858 and landed with the Naval Brigade at the attack on Peiho Fort, 1859. He was awarded the Silver R.H.S. Medal for rescuing a marine from drowning at Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1861. Promoted to Commander in 1868, he was appointed Inspecting Officer, H.M. Coastguard, at Newcastle, Co. Down. In 1876 he was instrumental in rescuing the crew from a wrecked ship for which he was awarded the R.N.L.I. Silver Medal. In 1879, he was placed in charge of the drill ship Unicorn based at Dundee and in 1883, he retired with the rank of Captain. Sold with some copied research.