Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., V.R., narrow suspension (Ferag, Tindal. H.M.S. Halcyon.) impressed naming, struck on a slightly thinner flan, and fitted with replacement copy suspender, abrasively cleaned and worn, therefore fair but scarce to rate

Renamed Medal: Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., V.R., narrow suspension (F Lilienthal. P.O.1st.Cl. Qtm. H.M.S. Rover.) contemporarily re-engraved naming, contact marks and pitting to naming, good fine (2) £60-£80

Ferag joined the Royal Navy as a Seedie in H.M.S. Ranger on 23 May 1883, and was promoted Tindal in H.M.S. Coquette on 1 July 1886.

Ludwig Frederick Lilianthal was born in Yorkshire around 1849 and married Jane Claybrook at Birmingham on 12 February 1882. Listed on the marriage certificate as a Seaman, other records indicate him to be a resident of the local workhouse at around that time. He is later recorded in the 1891 census as a Naval Pensioner living in Aston with his wife and niece.

Sold with copied research which notes that his name does not appear on the musters for H.M.S. Rover, nor does a service record appear extant, the conclusion from the research with the lot being that ‘our pauper had an elaborate plan to move from immigrant to naval hero’, with the pitting to the medal likely from having been worn alongside an equally self-awarded Khedive’s Star.