Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Canada General Service 1866-70, 1 clasp, Fenian Raid 1866 (A.B. P. J. Howe, H.M.S. Pylades) impressed naming, extremely fine £500-600

Philip John Howe was born in Ashland, Kent on 21 July 1839. He joined the Royal Navy as a Boy on 11 October 1854. Just prior to the ‘Fenian Raids’ of 1866, Able Seaman Howe was stationed at the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia. On 3 June 1866 the Pylades was in the port of Montreal, having been sent there in response to the Fenian threat. Intelligence reports suggested that some 3,000 Fenians were massing in the general area of Malone and Potsdam, New York State to attack Canada in the Cornwall area. Fifty sailors from the Pylades (including Howe) formed a Naval Brigade and along with 400 regulars from the Rifle Brigade were sent by train from Montreal to Cornwall to counter the threat but the attack that never came. After the raids were over, Howe returned to England and took his discharge. He then returned to Halifax N.S. where he married and went to work for the Customs Department. He retired in 1907, living at 36 North Street, Halifax. He died in 1912.

With a quantity of research including: several copied photographs of the recipient; copied roll extracts; genealogical research and data; a copy of the Journal of the Canadian Society of Military Medals and Insignia, Winter 1996, containing the article - ‘Philip John Howe, A.B., Royal Navy, H.M.S. Pylades.’