Family group:

Three: Chief Gunner F. Isaac, Royal Navy, who was commended for his rescue work after the Halifax explosion of December 1917
1914-15 Star (Ch. Gnr. F. Isaac, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Ch. Gnr. F. Isaac, R.N.), generally good very fine

Royal Naval Training Ship Pupil Teacher’s Medal for Attainment and Good Conduct, silver, the reverse officially inscribed ‘Charles J. Isaac’, good very fine

Royal Naval Training Ship Pupil Teacher’s Medal for Attainment and Good Conduct, silver, the reverse officially inscribed ‘C. Isaac’, good very fine (5) £200-250

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte.

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Frederick (William) Isaac was born in Bishopston, Sussex in December 1868, the son of John Golding Isaac, a veteran of the Baltic operations and a Commissioned Boatman in the Coast Guard. Entering the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in June 1884, he was advanced to Petty Officer 1st Class in the cruiser H.M.S. Australia in March 1892 and was appointed a Gunner, R.N., in November 1898.

By the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he was serving as a recently promoted Chief Gunner in torpedo boat destroyer 85, and he remained similarly employed until removing to the armed merchant cruiser Changuinola in May 1915. And it was in this latter capacity that he was won an endorsement on his service record ‘for showing great ability in rescue work’ following the famous Halifax explosion on 6 December 1917 - Changuinola landed a party of seamen and marines to assist in the rescue operations ashore:

‘Many badly injured were pulled from under houses which had collapsed and I am sorry to say a few had to be abandoned as the houses crashed down in flames. There was no available means of extinguishing the flames ... Motor-cars were commandeered and the wounded sent to hospital. In the meantime, the military had arrived on the scene’ (report by Lieutenant H. Percival, R.N.R., H.M.S. Changuinola refers).

Sadly, Isaac died suddenly on 30 January 1919, aged 50 years, while still serving in the Changuinola. He was buried in Portsmouth (Kingston) Cemetery.



Charles John Isaac, Frederick’s brother, was born in Bishopston, Sussex in November 1858 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 1st Class in February 1875. Having then trained as a pupil schoolmaster, he came ashore as an Assistant Schoolmaster in December 1883. The exact relationship between the two brothers and ‘C. Isaac’ has yet to be established, but he may have been a younger sibling.