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Auction: 17001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 270

(x) A Royal Humane Society Medal pair awarded to Chief Gunner W. J. Sivyer, Royal Navy

British War Medal 1914-20 (Ch. Gnr. W. J. Sivyer, R.N.), officially re-impressed naming; Royal Humane Society, small bronze medal (successful) (W. J. Sivyer, Capt. Fore Top, H.M.S. Triumph, 27 Sept. 1881), complete with riband buckle for wearing, occasional edge bruising to the last, otherwise very fine (2)

William John Sivyer was born at Landport, Hampshire on 18 September 1856 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in April 1871. Advanced to Able Seaman in August 1875 and to Leading Seaman in March 1877, he enjoyed a spate of seagoing appointments, among them the ironclad battleship H.M.S. Triumph, in which he gained promotion to Petty Officer status as a Captain of the Foretop.

It was during his time aboard Triumph that Sivyer won his Royal Humane Society Medal for a lifesaving act in May 1880, when he jumped overboard to the rescue of Ordinary Seaman Thomas Wooderson, 'who was in danger of drowning at Esquimalt and whose life he with assistance gallantly saved'. Originally awarded the Society's Honorary Testimonial on Vellum, he was recommended for the Bronze Medal by the R.H.S. Committee on 2 June 1882 (T.N.A. ADM 171/65 refers).

Pensioned ashore in March 1899, Sivyer was recalled in the Great War and served as a Chief Gunner and instructor at Excellent and Vernon. He was finally released from service in July 1919 and was awarded a single British War Medal. He died in Portsmouth on 22 May 1944, aged 87 years; sold with an extensive file of copied research, including a history of Esquimalt naval facility.



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Sold for
£120