Lifesaving Medal pair to George Fenner of the Harwich Lifeboat

Silver Medal of the South Holland Society for Rescue from Shipwreck, with clasp, ‘ZHMtrvS’, rev. inscribed, ‘George Fenner, 22 January 1881’, 45mm., silver; Life Saving Medal, circular, engraved, obv. inscribed, ‘George Fenner, Memento for Gallantry in saving Crew of Schooner “Rose” of Ipswich, 30th March 1901’; rev. inscribed with a wreath of laurel, ‘Let not the deep swallow me up’, 39mm., silver, with ornate silver suspension and brooch bars, contact marks, some edge bruising, nearly very fine (2) £160-200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Jack Boddington Collection of Life Saving Medals.

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George Fenner was born in Fornham St. Martin in Suffolk in 1842. As a member of the Harwich lifeboat crew, he was awarded the Silver Medal of the South Holland Society for Rescue from Shipwreck for his part in rescuing the crew of the Ingerid of Rotterdam. The 438 ton Dutch steamship was on passage from Norway to Naples with a cargo of fish, when, on 17 January 1881, she struck the Sunk Sand, off Clacton, Essex. Seven men left the stricken steamship the next day in one of her boats, whilst two others were lost overboard. The master and six others remained on the ship, lashed to the foremast in bitterly cold conditions. When the wreck was finally reported by the Cork Lightship on 20 January, the Harwich lifeboat Springwell set out at 7pm. but the frost had been so severe that a way had to be cut through the ice right to the harbour mouth. After a difficult journey the lifeboat found the wreck between 4 and 5am. and, at the second attempt, put a line aboard. The lifeboat crew, led by Assistant Coxswain William Britton and Captain St. Vincent Nepean, R.N., District Inspector of Lifeboats, boarded and helped the survivors into the lifeboat which set off on its return journey. Arriving at the Cork Lightship, they encountered the Lowestoft tug Despatch which took them in tow, and they reached Harwich just before 10am. on 21 January. Britton and Nepean received the Dutch medal in gold, the lifeboat crew of 11, including George Fenner, received it in silver. Britton and Nepean also received the R.N.L.I. Silver Medal for this rescue.

He was awarded a privately produced Lifesaving Medal for his part in the rescue of the crew of the Rose of Ipswich on 30 March 1901. On that day the Harwich steam lifeboat, the City of Glasgow, received a message from Felixstowe, that a gale was blowing from the south accompanied by heavy sea and that a schooner was aground on the St. Andrew’s Bank and flying signals of distress. The lifeboat left her moorings at 9.10am and founded the stranded schooner, which was bound for Ipswich, laden with granite from Guernsey. Seeing that the ship would inevitably become a wreck, the crew of four were taken into the lifeboat and safely landed at about 11.45am. Sold with copied research.