Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Engineer Commander P. M. Kelt, Royal Naval Reserve and Mercantile Marine, who survived the loss of the S.S. Aden in June 1897, spending 17 days on the wreck, and later received his Transport Medal from the hands of H.M. King Edward VII

Transport 1899-1902, 1 clasp, S. Africa 1899-1902 (P. Mc.L. Kelt.); British War and Mercantile Marine War Medals (Peter Mc.L. Kelt.); Royal Naval Reserve Decoration, G.V.R., silver and silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1911; Persia, Empire, Order of the Lion and the Sun, Fifth Class breast badge, silver and enamel, unmarked but most likely of French manufacture, mounted for wear, lightly polished, very fine and better (5) £1,200-£1,600

Peter McLaren Kelt was born in Musselburgh on 22 May 1871 and joined the Peninsula and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. He was serving as 4th Engineer in the S.S. Aden when, on the night of 8-9 June, en route from Yokohama to London, she struck a submerged reef off the island of Socotra at the southern entrance to the Red Sea during a heavy gale. Various lifeboats were got away, but these were all smashed and lost, and after the Captain had been washed overboard, Kelt became the senior surviving Officer. The remaining survivors, 36 crew and 9 passengers, then spent 17 days on the stricken wreck, during which time they subsisted partly on Barcelona nuts and suffered great hardships, before they were rescued by the Royal Indian Marine’s S.S. Mayo and conveyed to Aden.

Kelt qualified for his Transport Medal as 3rd Engineer in the Peninsula and Oriental Steam Navigation Company’s Simla, receiving his Medal from H.M. The King at Buckingham Palace on 4 November 1903. He joined the Royal Naval Reserve as an Engineer on 15 January 1903, and was promoted Senior Engineer (subsequently redesignated Engineer Lieutenant-Commander) on 18 July 1914. He was awarded the Royal Naval Reserve Decoration in 1916 (London Gazette 4 January 1916), and transferred to the Retired List with the rank of Engineer Commander in January 1920. He was awarded the Persian Order of the Lion and the Sun in June 1920 (receiving Restricted Permission to wear in on 24 June 1920), and died in Edinburgh on 2 August 1949.

Sold with copied research, including various newspaper cuttings.