Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Admiral R. P. Cator, Royal Navy, the only R.N. officer to receive an officially impressed medal for Azoff

Crimea 1854-56, 2 clasps, Azoff, Sebastopol (Lieut. R. P. Cator, R.N.) officially impressed naming, but with engraved correction to second initial [from ‘I’]; China 1857-60, 2 clasps, Canton 1857, Taku Forts 1858, unnamed as issued; Ottoman Empire, Order of the Medjidie, 5th class, silver, gold and enamels; Turkish Crimea, Sardinian issue, contemporary tailor’s copy by ‘J.B.’, dark toned, light contact marks and chips to red enamel, otherwise good very fine (4) £2,000-£2,400

Liverpool Medal Company catalogue circa 1980-85.

Ralph Peter Cator was born on 19 May 1829, at Bangalore in the Kingdom of Mysore, India, eldest son of Peter Cator, of Beckenham, Kent, Barrister-at-Law, who was for thirteen years Registrar of the Supreme Court of Madras. He was nephew of Major-General William Cator, C.B., Director-General of Artillery, and of Vice-Admiral B. C. Cator; and first cousin of J. B. Cator, R.N.

He entered the Royal Navy on 22 May 1843, on board the Castor, in which frigate he was employed for four and a half years, chiefly on the China and New Zealand stations (also entitled to New Zealand medal dated 1845-46 - his name is shown on the medal roll but this medal is never mentioned in his services in the Navy List right up to his death and has never been seen on the market. The Admiral is, however, depicted wearing a New Zealand medal in a portrait held in the collection of the Defence Academy of the U.K.). He served off the coast of Africa, where, in 1850 whilst in command of the pinnace of Philomel, he made prize of the Brazilian brigantine Condor off the river Louisa Loanga, for which he was mentioned for his judgement and gallantry.

In January 1853 he was appointed to the Rodney, and, in August 1854, to the command of the Danube, steam tender to the ship last named, and in September 1855 to the Rodney again. In command of the Danube he performed much valuable service. He assisted in landing the army in the Crimea, and in embarking the wounded after the battle of the Alma; he was in attendance on the allied fleets during the attack on the forts of Sebastopol, 17 October 1854; and in April 1855, he aided in embarking the Turkish troops under Omar Pasha at Eupatoria. He also accompanied the expedition to Kertch, where he was again employed in landing troops; and entering the Sea of Azoff with the flotilla under the orders of Captain Edmund Moubray Lyons, he contributed to the destruction of a vast accumulation of stores belonging to the Russian Government at Taganrog, Marioupol, and Gheisk, 3, 5 and 6 June; rendering, at Taganrog, good service with a 24-pounder howitzer and rockets, and evincing merit, which was mentioned with praise in the despatches of the senior officer. On the night of 16 June, prior to the unsuccessful attack on Malakhoff and Redan, the Danube was engaged in pouring a shower of rockets on the sea defences and town of Sebastopol.

As First-Lieutenant of the Furious he was attached to the Naval Brigade at the storming of the city of Canton in December 1857, on which occasion he assisted Captain Osborn in burning the houses in the vicinity of the North Gate, a service executed under sharp fire and with considerable difficulty, the houses containing little or no inflammable matter. His conduct during the operations against Canton was brought to the notice of the Commander-in-Chief, by whom he was mentioned for his services on shore (while belonging to the Calcutta) as Senior Lieutenant of the 2nd division of small-arm men at the destruction of the Chinese fortifications at the entrance of the Peiho River, 20 May 1858. He was rewarded with the rank of Commander in September 1858, and advanced to Captain in 1866, to Rear-Admiral in 1882, and to Vice-Admiral in 1888. He was A.D.C. to the Queen from December 1879 to December 1882, and the inventor of a “fog alarm buoy” which was approved by the Admiralty and issued to the Fleet. He was advanced to full Admiral in May 1894. Admiral Cator died in Chelsea, London, on 30 July 1903 and is buried in Northwood Cemetery.

Cator’s officially impressed Crimea medal is the only such example issued to an R.N. officer with the clasp for Azoff. Rodney was one of the four ships to which officially impressed medals were issued but Cator was the only officer to be detached for service in the Sea of Azoff from any of those ships.

Sold with copied research and Liverpool Medal Company catalogue entry offering these four medals for sale circa 1980-85.