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Auction: 17001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 242

Sold by Order of a Direct Descendant

A rare Archangel Albert Medal awarded to Edgar Twidle, captain of the Steamship "Bayropea", who displayed great gallantry aboard his command on 26 January 1917, as a raging inferno threatened to detonate the ship's cargo of 2,000 tonnes of munitions: having attempted in vain to save the life of his Chief Engineer, he managed to rescue a dazed Chinese sailor, dragging him across the ice just moments before the ship was torn apart by a catstrophic explosion

Albert Medal, 2nd Class, for Gallantry in Saving Life at Sea, bronze and enamel, the reverse officially engraved ‘Presented by His Majesty to Edgar Twidle, Master of the S.S. "Bayropea" of London for gallantry at a fire on board that vessel at Economia. 26th. January. 1917.', in slightly distressed case of issue, extremely fine

A.M. London Gazette 7 September 1917:

'On the 26 January, 1917, a series of fires and explosions occurred at Economia, port of Archangel. When Captain Twidle arrived on the scene his ship was burning fiercely. On being informed that the Chief Engineer was alive, Captain Twidle climbed on board but found that he was dead. He then examined the other rooms and found a Chinese sailor in a dazed condition. With the assistance of Mr. Martin and Mr. MacBryde this man was got over the ship's side across the ice, and eventually to the Red Cross station. About four minutes after the seaman had been removed the vessel blew up.'

Edgar Twidle was born at Blackheath, Kent, in February 1880. As captain of the transport steamship Bayropea, he had sailed from Cardiff to Archangel, with a cargo of munitions. He was invested with his Albert Medal at Buckingham Palace on 25 March 1918, an occasion attended by four V.C. winners.

The Albert Medal awarded to Twidle's Chief Officer, William Francis Gordon Martin, was offered for sale in 2013; sold with copied service papers and newspaper articles.

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Sold for
£5,200