Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

China 1900, 1 clasp, Taku Forts (G. Jackson, P.O. 2 Cl., H.M.S. Fame) nearly extremely fine £450-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte.

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Collection

A total of 245 clasps for Taku Forts to the Royal Navy, including 58 to H.M.S. Fame.

The destroyer Fame, under the command of Lieutenant Roger Keyes, R.N., afterwards Admiral of the Fleet, participated in a spectacular cutting-out operation, in concert with Whiting, on 17 June 1900, when both ships were ordered to capture four Chinese destroyers lying between Taku and Tongku - each ship towed into action a whaler manned by a dozen “Bluejackets”, all of them volunteers, on 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.’

George Jackson was born at Newton Abbot, Devon, on 30 April 1869, and joined the Navy in April 1885. He retired on pension as Petty Officer 1st Class Diver in 1909, but was recalled for service in August 1914 and returned to his pension in July 1918. His service in H.M.S. Jupiter, from 16 August 1914 to 19 May 1915, included her mission as an ice breaker at Archangel in the White Sea, February to May 1916.