Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Artificer Engineer J. T. Witty, Royal Canadian Navy, late Royal Navy, a veteran of the Boxer Rebellion and Boer War who was invalided ashore on account of a head injury sustained in the famous Halifax explosion in December 1917

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (J. T. Withy, Sto., H.M.S. Terrible), note surname spelling; China 1900, 1 clasp, Relief of Pekin (J. T. Witty, Sto., H.M.S. Fame); 1914-15 Star (J. T. Witty, Eng., H.M.C.S. Shearwater); British War and Victory Medals (J. T. Witty, A.E., R.C.N.), mounted as worn on two separate bars, generally very fine or better and rare (5) £800-1000

John Thomas Witty, who was born in Yorkshire in August 1876, was invalided from the Royal Navy in 1912, having witnessed active service as a Stoker in H.M.S. Terrible off South Africa in the Boer War, and in H.M.S. Fame in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, the latter ship then commanded by Lieutenant Roger Keyes, R.N., afterwards Admiral of the Fleet.

Sometime thereafter settling in Victoria, British Columbia, he joined the Royal Canadian Navy as an Artificer Engineer on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, when he was appointed to the submarine depot ship H.M.C.S. Shearwater. And, as confirmed by accompanying research, he was invalided ashore in August 1918, as a result of ongoing complications caused by a blow to his temple on the occasion of the famous Halifax explosion in December 1917. He was awarded the King’s Certificate in January 1919; sold with research.