Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

S.S. Drummond Castle Medal 1896, silver, unnamed as issued, in fitted red leather case, extremely fine £160-200

Sold with a handwritten card pinned to the inside of the case. The card notes the details on the loss of the Drummond Castle and the award of medals. It further notes that ‘this medal presented by Sir Courtney Boyle, Secy. Board of Trade to W. T. Perkins’. Sir Courtney Boyle, K.C.B., was Permanent Secretary to the Board of Trade from 1893 to his death in 1909.

The Castle Mail Packets Company liner S.S. Drummond Castle, homeward bound from Natal and Capetown, struck a reef off Ushant in a fog on the night of 16th June, 1896. Foundering within four minutes, of the 143 passengers and 104 officers and crew, only three escaped the disaster. Silver medals were struck with the approval of Queen Victoria for award to the Breton fishermen and other inhabitants of Brest, Ushant, and Molene who helped in rescuing the survivors, and in the recovery and burial of those lost. A total of 282 medals were struck.