Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society, Marine Medal, 3rd type, silver (Mr. Ed. Foster 4th. Officer S.S. “Branksome Hall” for Rescue of Crew of “Schiffswerft” in Bay of Biscay, 6 March 1897.) with integral top silver riband buckle, in Oldfields, Liverpool, fitted case of issue, extremely fine £200-£240

Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society Annual Report July 1897: ‘On March 6th, 1897, at 2:00 a.m., in the Bay of Biscay, with a gale from the N.W. and a very heavy sea, the S.S. Branksome Hall, Captain Hood, fell in with the dismasted Barque Schiffswerft showing signals of distress. The falling masts had damaged the pumps, broken in the deck in places, and there was 14 feet of water in the hold. At 10:30 a.m. a boat from the Barque capsized under the stern of the Branksome Hall - three of the crew however were rescued. Not until noon was it possible to send a boat, Mr. Benjamin Dowse, Chief Officer in charge, and with him Mr. Edward Foster, 4th Officer, and two Quarter-Masters. They made two extremely difficult trips, and succeeded in saving the remainder of the crew and Captain. As the men got on the steamer the boat was smashed alongside and lost. A vote of thanks, framed in Russian leather, was awarded to Captain Hood, Silver Medals and votes of thanks to Mr. Dowse and Mr. Foster, and £2 to each of the Quarter-Masters’

Edward Foster was born at Little Sutton, Cheshire, in 1872 and received his Master's Certificate on 30 November 1901. He served in the Mercantile Marine during the Great War (entitled to a British War Medal and a Mercantile Marine War Medal), and drowned at sea, having been knocked overboard off the Hook of Holland, on 31 July 1934.

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