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Auction: 16002 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals and Militaria
Lot: 174

A Naval Officer´s Sword
A Royal Navy Sword, bearing foliate decoration, crowned anchor, and Royal Arms, and inscribed 'Commander Gregory Stapleton R.N.', regulation guilt guard with fishskin grip and spring-clip retaining mechanism, this engraved ´G. Stapleton. R.N.´, in black leather scabbard with brass fittings, all contained in brown leather scabbard-bag, this embossed 'G. Stapleton. R.N.', the sword and scabbard recently refurbished to original appearance, but lacking sword knot, together with a copy of the recipient's book Easting Down, A Romance of the Sea

Commander Gregory Stapleton, was born in Warwick in January 1864, the third son of Captain the Hon. Bryan Stapleton, and educated at Downside College. He began his sea career at the age of 14, and by the age of 21 had been around the world three times by sail. Commissioned Lieutenant, Royal Navy, in October 1895, he was appointed Captain Superintendent and Director, Imperial Lighthouse Service, Ceylon in 1907; Nautical Assessor of the island the following year; and promoted Commander, Royal Navy, in January 1909. In 1915 he organised and commanded an armed force of special constables to help quell the Ceylon riots, and received the special thanks of the local authorities for his valuable service rendered on that occasion. Returning to the United Kingdom, he was appointed Naval Attaché at the British Legation in Lisbon in 1918, and received from the Portuguese Government the Star of Knight Commander of the Military Order of the Avis. On the cessation of the Great War he was appointed Captain of the Port of Holyhead, and also served as a Justice of the Peace for Anglesey, a Stipendiary Magistrate for Holyhead Harbour, and a Younger Brother of the Honourable Corporation of Trinity House. He retired in 1934, and died in Brighton, Sussex, in June 1938.

As a former Master Mariner who had worked the Far East in sail, Stapleton had a true love of the sea. As he wrote in the preface to his book 'Easting Down, a Romance of the Sea', published in 1931, 'The era of deep-sea sailing ships, of the time when the sea-borne commerce of England was carried under canvas, has ended. It is more than a pity, for the seafarers of England, the sailors that those ships bred, were the men of whom this country built its greatness. They reached out into every corner of the world and left an indelible mark on the commerce of the nations. Soon there will be no one left to tell how the merchant sailing-ship was handled; of the daily routine of those on board; and of the sea lore that carried them in safety on their long passages from port to port.'

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Sold for
£480