PHENOMENAL COLLECTION OF NAVAL MEDALS IS 100% SOLD AT NOONANS

The first Naval V.C. of the Great War has sold today (Tuesday, July 23, 2024) for a hammer price of £240,000 at Noonans Mayfair. Awarded to Captain Henry Peel Ritchie of the Royal Navy, who was born in Edinburgh, it was expected to fetch £200,000-260,000 in the sale of Naval medals from the collection of the late Jason Pilalas. The first part of the collection comprised 250 medals, which was 100% sold and fetched a hammer price of £1.8million.

Ritchie won the Senior Service’s first V.C. of the conflict for his gallant command of H.M.S. Goliath’s steam pinnace at Dar-es-Salaam in East Africa in on 28 November 1914.

As Christopher Mellor-Hill, Head of Client Liaison at Noonans explains: “The price achieved in today’s sale reflects the bravery and gallantry of Ritchie and the importance of the Victoria Cross. It was also the first Naval VC of WW1 when the Navy was very busy blockading German East Africa and hunting the German battleship SS Konigsberg. It was active competition between a bidder on the phone and a commission bidder, the medal was purchased by a private collector.”

When the pinnace came under a withering fire, 38-year-old Ritchie took over the wheel from his wounded coxswain and steered for the harbour’s entrance, but it took 20 minutes to get clear, in which period he was wounded eight times - on the forehead, in the left hand, twice in the left arm, in his right arm and hip and, finally, by two bullets through his right leg.  Ritchie, who was promoted Captain on the Retired List in January 1924, lived at Craig Royston House in Edinburgh and died there on 9 December 1958, aged 83.
Elsewhere in the collection which covered more than 200 years of Naval history was the unique and poignant Second War bomb and mine disposal G.C., D.S.C. group of ten awarded to Lieutenant-Commander William Ewart Hiscock, Royal Navy, who was born in Dorchester, Dorset in 1886 which sold for a hammer price of £140,000 - it was estimated at £80,000-£120,000.
As Christopher Mellor-Hill added: “In his capacity as Controlled Mining Officer at H.M.S. St. Angelo, Malta, Hiscock dealt with no fewer than 125 ‘incidents’ at the height of the island’s siege, among them an ‘Italian torpedo machine’ and other unknown types of ordnance: in dismantling the former, which contained a 650lb. high explosive charge fitted with four firing devices and a time fuse, the clock mechanism whirred into action, but he calmly neutralised the device nonetheless. Tragically, he and his wife were killed in a bombing raid on Valetta in February 1942, just a few days after the announcement of his award of the G.C., so it was presented to one of his daughters by King George VI at Buckingham Palace on 23 June 1942.”
He continued: “The medal was bought by a private bidder via a commission bid.”
Jason Pilalas (1941-2023) was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, USA and grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut. His love of all things nautical stemmed from his service as an officer in the United States Navy, with whom he completed three tours of Vietnam.
Prior to the sale, Nimrod Dix, Deputy Chairman of Noonans and Director of the Medal Department commented: “He was not only a man of many talents, but he was also a man of many interests, none more so than his relentless pursuit of knowledge of all things relating to the Royal Navy. This voracious appetite for knowledge being matched only by his seemingly unquenchable thirst to collect objects relating to his passion. However, as much as Jason cherished his collection, he was always mindful of the fact that he was just the custodian of these objects in his own lifetime.”