Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Captain E. D. Towse, Army Pay Department, who survived the wreck of the Princess Alice on 3 September 1878

British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. E. D. Howse) mounted court-style for display, good very fine (2) £70-£90

Edward Duncan Towse was born in 1870, the first cousin once removed of Captain Sir Beachcroft Towse, V.C., K.C.V.O., C.B.E., and whilst still a child survived the sinking of the Princess Alice on 3 September 1878; the wreck of the Princess Alice with the loss of several hundred lives was the greatest disaster in the history of British coastal cruising. The Towse family was very severely affected, and Edward Duncan Towse lost his mother (Mrs Emily Towse), four of his siblings, his grandmother (Mrs Hooper), cousin (Miss Wearing), the family nurse (Mary Barker), and a friend of his mother’s (Mrs Bing). Three of his siblings were saved; his father, William Wrench Towse, had disembarked at Gravesend before the disaster took place. He subsequently served during the Great War with the Army Pay Department, and was later a Captain on the General List. He died in 1931.