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Auction: 11007 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 191

Royal National Lifeboat Institution Medal, silver, type 2 1862-1903, obverse: head of Queen Victoria with chaple of oak leaves facing left (Lieut. H.T. Gartside Tipping. R.N. Voted 12th May 1892), engraved in mixed styles, nearly extremely fine, with uniface ´dolphin´ suspension Estimate £ 700-900 Henry Thomas Gartside-Tipping, Lieutenant, R.N., District Inspector of Lifeboats, citation reads, Awarded ´in high appreciation of his zealous and efficient services... in acknowledgement of the risk of life he frequently incurred in the Life-boat service.´ Lieutenant Gartside-Tipping had filled the post of Inspector of the Irish District for 13 years and had resigned in consequence of private affairs. He invented the Tipping´s plates, named after him, which enabled a heavy lifeboat to be transported on her carriage over deep and soft sand. Lieutenant-Commander H.T. Gartside-Tipping joined the Royal Navy as Cadet, 1860; Sub-Lieutenant 1867; promoted Lieutenant, 1870, after a tour in the Royal Yacht Victoria & Albert, and left the service in 1874; held the post of Inspector of Lifeboats (Irish District), 1879-1892; with the outbreak of the Great War, despite his age, re-engaged for service as Lieutenant-Commander, 1914; he was assigned to the famous Dover Patrol and given command of the steam yacht Sanda which had been hired by the Admiralty as an auxiliary patrol vessel and armed with two 6 pdrs; on the evening of 24th September 1915, a large flotilla sailed from Dover to bombard Zeebrugge and Ostend in response to a request from the Army to create a diversion whilst they carried out a key offensive on the Western Front; the Sanda was part of the Ostend force and, arriving there the next morning, the bombardment commenced at 7am; two hours later the enemy heavy batteries opened fire and at 9.15am the Sanda received a direct hit below the bridge; all of her executive officers, including Gartside-Tipping, were killed instantly; only 13 of her complement of 26 survived her sinking; as if this was not tragic enough, Gartside-Tipping, having by then become something of a celebrity as the oldest naval officer serving afloat, had been presented to King George V only two days previously during the King´s inspection of the Dover Patrol; the incident, and the Ostend operation, are both recalled in Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon´s memoirs´ The (Concise) Story of the Dover Patrol, the author also offers his own obituary for Gartside-Tipping when he writes: "This gallant officer returned to the Navy on the outbreak of war at an age when most men are beyond active service, being over seventy years of age, and undertook the duties of Captain of a yacht in the Dover Command in spite of the arduous work and exposure which the performance of his duties entailed."

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£1,500