Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., V.R., wide suspension (Wm. Fraser, Cd. Btmn., H.M. Coast Gd., 22 Yrs.), engraved naming, suspension with traces of repair and re-riveted, edge nicks, good very fine £350-400

An interesting example of the Royal Navy L.S. & G.C. Medal, issued as it was at the time of the changeover from wide to narrow suspension, as discussed by G. W. Hawkes in his article The Last Wide (O.M.R.S. Journal, September 2002). As stated by Captain K. J. Douglas-Morris in an accompanying letter, the above award ‘ought to have, or originally did have a narrow suspension’, yet, as observed by Hawkes, ‘because of the five month gap between the date of Fraser’s pension (a week before the last known wide suspension) and medal award (five months later), I suggest it might be the last L.S. & G.C. wide suspension issued to either the Royal Navy or H.M. Coast Guard’.

William Fraser was born at Newport, Isle of Wight in May 1834 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in January 1850. He subsequently witnessed active service in the Baltic aboard H.M.S. Penelope, and off China aboard the Nankin, including the Canton 1857 operations. Rapid promotion followed, from Leading Seaman in March 1859 to Captain of the Mast in August 1862 and Captain of the Foretop in October of the same year, but in early 1865, he transferred as a Boatman to H.M. Coast Guard, in which capacity he remained employed until being pensioned as a Commissioned Boatman in February 1875. His service record further confirms that he was issued with his L.S. & G.C. Medal on 20 July of the same year; sold with copied research.