The Collection of Life Saving Awards formed by The Late W.H. Fevyer

The R.N.L.I. Medal with Second Service clasp awarded to The Reverend Chancellor Owen Lloyd Williams, the “Lifeboat Parson” of North Wales

Royal National Lifeboat Institution, V.R., silver (The Revd. Owen Lloyd Williams. Voted 3rd Feby. 1870) with Second Service clasp (Voted 2nd January 1879) with uniface ‘double dolphin’ suspension, edge bruising, very fine £1000-1200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Life Saving Awards formed by The Late W.H. Fevyer.

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Ref. Spink Exhibition 1985, No. 61; Sotheby ‘Rule, Britannia!’ Exhibition 1986, No.330.

R.N.L.I. Medal: ‘14-15 January 1870: The Liverpool ship Kenilworth, homeward bound from New Orleans with a cargo of cotton, was caught in a severe squall during a north-west gale and grounded on St. Patrick’s Causeway, Cardigan Bay, north-west of Barmouth, Merioneth. Eight men were saved by the Barmouth lifeboat before it was forced to leave by rising seas and by the gale that had increased to hurricane force. The Abersoch self-righting lifeboat Mabel Louisa had launched from her station on the Lleyn Peninsula, Caernavon, but was unable to find the casualty. Shortly after her return the Honorary Secretary arrived and with him on board, the lifeboat relaunched. After a three hour search in dreadful seas, they found the wreck and, going alongside, took off the 13 survivors in hazardous circumstances. The Reverend Lloyd Williams had been instrumental in saving 52 lives from various wrecks’ (Ref. Lifeboat Gallantry, by Barry Cox).

Second Service clasp: ‘10 October 1878: The Reverend Williams came of a family devoted in every way to lifeboat service and took an active part in their activities. Not for him the Honorary Secretary staying ashore directing operations - he preferred to be in the thick of things and this award was made in recognition of his long co-operation and intrepid services.

A gale was blowing when the Liverpool barque Dusty Miller, St. John’s to Holyhead, with a cargo of timber, was seen in distress riding at anchor near St. Patrick’s Causeway in Cardigan Bay, off Barmouth, Merioneth. The Barmouth lifeboat could not launch in the gale, so the Abersoch lifeboat Mable Louisa put off and, arriving at the scene, was asked to stay alongside until the weather moderated. Despite the gale and heavy sea, the lifeboat, with the Reverend Williams on board, remained on station until a steam tug arrived at 6 a.m. and took the barque into St. Tudwall’s Roads off Abersoch’ (Ref. Lifeboat Gallantry).

Chancellor Owen Lloyd Williams was born in 1828, the son of the Reverend James Williams and Mrs Frances Williams. Some years previous to his birth his parents had witnessed the sinking of the Alert with heavy loss of life and they had been moved to raise funds to provide for boats which could be used to save life. Owen Lloyd Williams followed his father into the Church and, unsurprisingly, given his parents great interest, followed them enthusiastically into all aspects of the R.N.L.I.

More at home at sea than in the pulpit, he is recorded as saying, ‘I am happiest when I am rescuing people at sea’. As curate at Rhoscolyn, he went out to sea and saved 24 lives. He was in charge of the Cemlyn lifeboat when he was 20 and was later the Honorary Secretary of the Abersoch R.N.L.I. In 1858 he rescued 2 men from the Liverpool schooner Isabel when she ran aground on the North Bar, off Barmouth; in 1862 he is recorded as having saved 34 men and in 1870 he was instrumental in saving 13 from the stricken Kenilworth (see above) for which he was awarded the R.N.L.I. Silver Medal. In 1879 he received a clasp to his medal for his continued service and for standing by the Dusty Miller (see above)under hazardous circumstances. As Rector of Bodfaen on the Lleyn Peninsula he was coxswain of lifeboats on both sides of the peninsula.

Battling for most of his life against the sea, his last battle was against the hierarchy of the R.N.L.I. when they decided to withdraw the Cemlyn lifeboat. Williams, then Rector of Llanrhyddlad, near Cemlyn, regarded the lifeboat stationed there as the ‘family lifeboat’ and most necessary for safety of the coast. One story records him, a sprightly 85 year-old, traveling to London to the headquarters of the R.N.L.I. armed with a marlin spike to make his point to the powers that be. Roaring that only over his dead body would the Cemlyn boat be moved, his eloquence (and marlin spike) carried the day and it was agreed that the boat would remain until after his death. The promise was kept, the redoubtable Reverend died in 1918 aged 90 years, and in the following year the Cemlyn boat was withdrawn.

See lot 92 for his father’s R.N.I.P.L.S. Gold Medal. Sold with a quantity of copied research and copied photographs. Also included several letters to a previous owner regarding the recipient and his family.