Four: Captain Charles Gray Jones, Royal Navy

Crimea 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol, unnamed; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue, unnamed, plugged and fitted with scroll suspension; Royal Humane Society, small, bronze medal (successful) (Capt. C. G. Jones, R.N. 29 Decr. 1872); Royal National Lifeboat Institution, V.R., silver (Capt. Charles Gray Jones, R.N. Voted 5th March 1874) with Second Service clasp (Voted 7th Jany. 1875) with uniface ‘double dolphin’ suspension, first two with contact marks and edge bruising, nearly very fine and better (4) £1200-1400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Life Saving Awards formed by The Late W.H. Fevyer.

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Commander Charles Gray Jones, R.N., aged 36 years, of H.M.S. Pert, saved the life of Able Seaman Dobbin, aged 30 years, at Monte Video. At 4 p.m. on 29 December 1872 on the Santa Lucia River, a boat capsized with Dobbin on board. Commander Jones jumped from the boat fully dressed and brought Dobbin to the surface and supported him until a boat arrived (Ref. R.H.S. Case No. 19,309).

R.N.L.I. Medal: ‘26 February 1874: At daybreak the Youghal schooner Rose, from Bridgewater to Dublin, was seen driving before the heavy south-easterly gale into Dundrum Bay, Co. Down, Northern Ireland and, while the Newcastle self-righting lifeboat Reigate was being launched, the schooner struck and filled immediately; one man was drowned. With Captain Gray-Jones on board, Coxswain Hill took the lifeboat through a heavy cross sea and tide, amid wreckage, and took off the other four crew members from the schooner’s fore-rigging’ (Ref. Lifeboat Gallantry). For their services, Captain Charles Gray Jones, R.N., Second Assistant Inspector of Lifeboats, and James Hill, Coxswain of the Newcastle, Co. Down lifeboat, were both awarded the R.N.L.I. Silver Medal.

Second Service clasp: ‘6 December 1874: A westerly gale and heavy sea drove the Padstow smack Charlotte into Widemouth Bay, near Bude, Devon, where she was wrecked. Captain Gray-Jones rushed into the surf and helped save her Master.

16 December 1874: The Dublin brig Annie Arby was seen driving before a strong easterly gale with her topmast hanging in a tangle of rigging; the Ilfracombe self-righting lifeboat Broadwater launched under the command of Captain Gray-Jones and, with all possible sail, made the brig just as she was driving toward the shore under the cliffs north of Morte Point. The lifeboatmen helped to cut the wreckage and others worked the remaining sails until she wore clear. Under guidance from a man with local knowledge, she took a narrow passage through the rocks and came to anchor, where she waited for a tug while her seven man crew carried out emergency repairs. The lifeboat left but, during her return journey, picked up five men from the Workington brog Utility in a boat drifting helplessly off Rockham Bay. Theit vessel had driven on to the rocky foreshore, filled and sunk so that all that they could do was scramble into their boat’ (Ref. Lifeboat Gallantry, by Barry Cox).

Sold with R.H.S. and R.N.L.I. extracts.