Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria including the collection to Naval Artificers formed by JH Deacon

Pair: Naval Schoolmaster C. T. Oliver, Royal Navy

Baltic 1854-55, unnamed as issued; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., V.R., wide suspension (Navl. Schoolmr., H.M.S. Cambridge, 22 Yrs.), the first with pawnbroker’s mark to left of claw, contact wear, very fine or better (2) £200-250

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals formed by the late Jack Deacon.

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Charles Thomas Oliver was born in Ireland in September 1832 and joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 1st Class aboard H.M.S. Excellent in July 1847. Advanced to Ordinary Seaman in October 1850 and to Able Seaman in January 1853, he witnessed active service in the Baltic operations of 1854-55 aboard the Vulture. Oliver went on to attain the rate of Chief Gunner, but latterly served as a Naval Schoolmaster and was pensioned ashore in December 1870, in which month he received his L.S. & G.C. Medal.

The title of Naval Schoolmaster had derived from the earlier rate of Seaman’s Schoolmaster back in 1862, and, five years later was elevated to the substantive rank of Chief Petty Officer. By 1889, all Naval Schoolmasters were withdrawn from ships of the seagoing fleet, but the link between this branch and Naval Instructors was not severed until the Great War.