Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The C.V.O. insignia attributed to Commodore Hugh Tyrwhitt, Royal Navy, Captain of H.M.S. Renown during the Royal Visit to India in 1905-06

The Royal Victorian Order, C.V.O., Commander’s, neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels, the reverse officially numbered ‘C 236’, in its Collingwood, London fitted case of issue, good very fine £400-£500

Hugh Tyrwhitt was born on 14 July 1856, at Ashwell Thorpe, Norfolk, the 2nd son of Sir Henry Thomas Tyrwhitt, 3rd Baronet and Harriet Wilson, 12th Baroness Berners. He was commissioned a Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Navy in June 1876 and promoted to Lieutenant in February 1881. He served as Flag Lieutenant to the Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, served with the Naval Brigade in Sudan and took part in the Nile Expedition to relieve General Charles Gordon in 1884. He was promoted to Commander in June 1893, and to Captain in January 1889. On 19 March 1900 he was appointed Flag Captain of the battleship H.M.S. Renown, flag ship to Admiral Sir John Fisher, Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. Fisher resigned from this position in June 1902 to become Second Sea Lord. Following Fisher’s recommendation, Tyrwhitt was appointed Private Naval Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty in October 1902. In 1905 he was appointed Commodore 2nd Class of the battleship H.M.S. Renown to escort the Prince and Princess of Wales to India. He was made Naval aide-de-camp to the King in 1906, and he died of kidney failure on 26 October 1907, and fittingly was buried at sea.

Sold with copied research and original Central Chancery letter confirming that ‘C.V.O. Badge No. 235 was awarded to Captain The Honourable Hugh Tyrwhitt R.N. on the 11th March 1903 on the occasion of the Prince of Wales visit to India.’