Medals for the Boxer Rebellion 1900 to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines

The important C.B., C.V.O. group of seven awarded to Commodore W. O. Boothby, Royal Navy, the youngest Captain in the Royal Navy of his day, whose premature death curtailed a most distinguished career

The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, C.B. (Military) Companion’s breast badge, silver-gilt and enamel, with straight bar swivel ring suspension and silver-gilt buckle on ribbon; The Royal Victorian Order, C.V.O., Commander’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, rev. numbered, ‘C473’, in numbered Collingwood, London case of issue; Coronation 1911, silver, unnamed; Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, dated reverse, 1 clasp, Alexandria 11th July (Midn., R.N., H.M.S. Superb) some pitting; China 1900, 1 clasp, Relief of Pekin (Commr., R.N., H.M.S. Endymion); Khedive’s Star 1882, unnamed, the C.B. and medals mounted as worn; Sweden, Order of the Sword, Commander’s neck badge, gold and enamel, in Carlman, Stockholm case of issue, very fine and better (7) £2200-2600

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals for the Boxer Rebellion 1900 to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines.

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H.M.S. Endymion was a 1st Class Cruiser of 7,350 tons, built by Earle of Hull and launched in July 1891. A total of 280 officers and other ranks of the ship were entitled to the China Medal with single clasp ‘Relief of Pekin’.

William Osbert Boothby was born at Whitwell, Derbyshire, on 7 January 1866, the second son of the Rev. Evelyn Boothby, Vicar of Whitwell. He entered the Royal Navy as a Naval Cadet in January 1879 and became a Midshipman in 1881. He served aboard the Superb during the Egyptian War of 1882 and was present at the bombardment of Alexandria. He was promoted to Sub-Lieutenant in September 1885, Lieutenant in September 1886, receiving five firsts, and Commander in January 1899. As such he served on the Endymion in the China War of 1900. He served in Admiral Seymour’s Expedition to Pekin, and was mentioned in Admiral’s despatch (London Gazette 10 May 1900), ‘Commander William O. Boothby, of H.M.S. Endymion, in command of the seamen from that ship, and at times, of others also. He was in every engagement, and I specially noticed his energy and activity’. The Endymion’s log for 10 June 1900 also records, ‘Sent landing party consisting of two rifle companies of twenty file each, all marines, two 9-pdr. field guns crews and two Nordenfeldt .45 machine guns crews under Commander Boothby ...’ On 23 September 1900, Commander Boothby was awarded the Testimonial on Vellum by the Royal Humane Society for attempting to save the life of Leading Seaman W. E. Kirkham of the Endymion, who had fallen overboard off Taku Bar on the Pieho. Boothby received special promotion to Captain in January 1903 and was at that time the youngest officer of that rank in the Royal Navy.

He was appointed Flag-Captain of the Illustrious, flagship of the Channel Fleet in November 1906, and in 1908 was appointed to command the new armoured cruiser Minotaur. His ship was selected to escort the Royal Yachts Victoria and Albert and Alexandra, carrying King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra to Revel, to meet Tsar Nicholas II. For his services he was invested with the M.V.O. 4th Class by Edward VII and the Order of St. Anne, 2nd Class with diamonds by the Tsar. In 1908 the Minotaur as part of the 5th Cruiser Squadron escorted the King and Queen of Sweden from Cherbourg to Portsmouth on a royal visit. For this service he was invested with the Order of the Sword. In September 1909 Boothby was appointed Naval Assistant to the Second Sea Lord and in January 1911 he was appointed Captain of the Fleet to the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, with the rank of Commodore. On the occasion of the Coronation of George V, Boothby was created a Companion of the Order of the Bath, and was advanced to C.V.O. in June on the occasion of the Coronation Naval Review at Spithead. In 1913, increasingly suffering from lumbago and a hernia, Commodore Boothby was admitted to St. Thomas’s Hospital for an operation. Never fully recovering, he died of heart failure on 20 May 1913 and was buried at St. Martin’s, Canterbury. His passing was universally regretted in the Navy, which, in little more than a years time was to need all the officers it could muster of Boothby’s character and experience.

Sold with a copy of a detailed unpublished typescript biography of the recipient, including a long account of the China operations in a letter to his mother, a copied photograph and riband bars.