Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Surgeon Lieutenant A. S. Bissett, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
British War and Victory Medals (Surg. Prob. A. S. Bissett. R.N.V.R.); Voluntary Medical Service Medal (Dr. A. Bissett) in named card box of issue, nearly extremely fine

Pair: Surgeon Lieutenant A. Toulmin, Royal Navy
British War and Victory Medals (Surg. Lt. A. Toulmin. R.N.) VM officially re-impressed; together with a renamed 1914-15 Star (Surg. A. Toulmin, F.R.C.S. Ed., R.N.) good very fine (6) £100-£140

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Small Collection of Medals to Naval Surgeons.

View
Collection

Alexander Shanks Bissett (also recorded as Bisset) was born on the island of Islay on 28 March 1896 and was educated at Glasgow University. He entered the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a temporary Surgeon Probationer on 27 December 1915, and served during the Great War initially in H.M.S. Gentian. Relinquishing his commission in order to resume his medical studies on 19 July 1917, he was was commissioned once more into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on 10 May 1919, serving in H.M.S. Caesar in the Mediterranean. He was demobilised on 1 December 1919 and subsequently went into private practice in Glasgow. He was awarded the Voluntary Medical Service Medal for his service with the St. Andrew’s Ambulance Association, and died in June 1979.

Arthur Toulmin was born in Preston, Lancashire, on 10 December 1881 and was educated at Preston Grammar School, Owens College, Manchester, and the University of London. He was commissioned temporary Surgeon in the Royal Navy on 9 June 1915, and was posted to H.M.S. Jupiter on 13 August 1915. He transferred to H.M.S. Dufferin on 12 November 1915 at Aden, and then to the R.N. Hospital at Granton, Queensferry, on 2 October 1916. He served her until the summer of 1918, when he transferred to the Hospital Ship China at Scapa Flow. He was demobilised in 1919, and returned to Preston, taking up an appointment at the County of Lancaster Royal Infirmary. He retired in 1955, and died on 3 March 1969.

Sold with copied research.