Previous Lot Next Lot

Auction: 9022 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Militaria
Lot: 451

Five: Lieutenant P.C. Thurburn, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve 1914-15 Star (Lieut. P.C. Thurburn. R.N.V.R.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. P.C. Thornburn [sic]. R.N.V.R.); Defence and War Medals, nearly extremely fine Estimate £ 120-140 Lieutenant Percy C. ´´Powder´´ Thurburn (1869-1961) was a Great British eccentric in the best tradition. Well educated and from a wealthy family he ran away to sea as a boy only to become involved in a mutiny aboard a square-rigged ship in Australia. Later he and a trusted crewman went on a gun-running expedition to Africa. Changing his mind when he came across a band of cut-throat pirates, he made for another port where he exchanged the guns for wine. As a Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Officer he served aboard a minesweeper during the Great War, on one occasion engaging in a spot of fishing whilst on patrol. On leaving the service he sailed from port to port around the British coast, eventually settling on the Helford River in Cornwall where he built his own house and devoted the rest of his life to painting ships, boats, and the sea (The Artist who Loved Boats refers)

Sold for
£300