Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Photograph Albums (4) which cover the career of Paymaster Lieutenant-Commander William Peter Rainier, Royal Navy, approx. 1910-30; together with the ‘Journal of C. Rainier’, a naval ancestor, being his hand-written diary entries for the months of July-August 1823, albums and journal covers worn, contents aged but in fairly good condition (5) £40-80

William Peter Rainier, the scion of a distinguished naval family, was born in October 1888 and entered the Royal Navy as an Acting Clerk in January 1906. Advanced to Assistant Paymaster in December 1909, the outbreak of hostilities found him employed at the Malta base Egmont, but additional for duty in the cruiser H.M.S. Blenheim, in which capacity he served until November 1917, thereby witnessing action in the Dardanelles and elsewhere in the Mediterranean theatre of war. He was awarded the Italian Al Valore Militare in Bronze (London Gazette 17 November 1917) which no doubt stemmed from the recommendation of Captain Coode, who found him to be a most able officer and worthy of appointment as a Secretary to a Flag Officer. And so it transpired, Rainier joining the Staff of Rear-Admiral Bernard back in the U.K. at Portland, in which post he remained employed until the end of the War, gaining advancement to Paymaster Lieutenant-Commander in October 1919.

The five albums cover the approximate period, 1910-1930, and record the British Fleet at work in all corners of the globe (China Station, West Africa Station, etc.), including some splendid views of capital ships such as the King Edward VII and Malaya, but also, in an album dedicated to his time at Portland, 1918-19, approximately 60 “Seaplane Photographs” of assorted convoys, etc., an extraordinarily thorough record of the shore establishment itself, and its “Listening School” and related vessels (approximately 125 images, including buildings, W.R.N.S. staff, sporting events, etc.), right through to scenes from the surrender of the German Fleet. Over 400 photographs. With the “Journal of C. Rainier”, a naval ancestor, being his diary entries for the months of July-August 1823, 16pp.

Rainier’s 1914-15 Star, British War and Victory Medals and Al Valore Militare were previously sold with the albums in D.N.W. 5 April 2006, lot 970.