Orders, Decorations and Medals

China 1900, 1 clasp, Taku Forts (J. Rushworth, Sto., H.M.S. Whiting), suspension claw a little slack, very fine £350-400

A total of 55 officers and ratings from H.M.S. Whiting were awarded the Medal for Taku Forts.

To the destroyer H.M.S. Whiting, and her consort Fame, fell the unenviable task of capturing four Chinese destroyers lying between Taku and Tongku, which were threatening the Allied attack on the forts. Commanded respectively by Lieutenants R. Keyes, R.N. (afterwards Admiral of the Fleet) and C. MacKenzie, R.N., each ship also towed into action a whaler manned by a dozen “Bluejackets”, all of them volunteers - it was one of the last occasions boarding parties went into action with the cutlass. In his subsequent report to the Rear-Admiral, China Station, dated 27 June 1900, Keyes stated:

‘After a slight resistance and the exchange of a few shots, the crews were driven overboard or below hatches; there were a few killed and wounded; our casualties were nil. No damage was done to the prizes, but the Fame’s bow was slightly bent when we closed to board, and the Whiting was struck by a projectile about 4 or 5 inches abreast a coal bunker. This was evidently fired from a mud battery on the bend between Taku and Tongku, which fired in all about 30 shots at us, none of the others striking, though several coming very close ... There was a good deal of sniping from the dockyard so I directed all cables of the prizes to be slipped and proceeded to tow them up to Tongku.’