Three: Chief Petty Officer H. Hover, Royal Navy

Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, undated reverse, no clasp (H. A. Hover, Ord. H.M.S. Falcon.); British War Medal 1914-20 (118474 H. A. Hover, C.P.O. R.N.); Khedive’s Star 1884-6, unnamed as issued, generally very fine (3) £180-£220

Provenance: Captain K. J. Douglas-Morris Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, February 1997.

Henry Hover was born in Poplar, Middlesex, on 21 October 1866. He joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class aboard H.M.S. Impregnable on 19 January 1882, and served in H.M.S. Falcon from 11 November 1883 to 16 November 1886, being advanced Ordinary Seaman in October 1884, and Able Seaman in March 1886. Between 1887 and 1894 he found himself for short periods aboard eighteen different vessels. He joined H.M. Coast Guard as a Boatman on 8 May 1894, and was advanced to Commissioned Boatman on 14 May 1901, and to Chief Boatman on 15 December 1909. He was awarded his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal on 18 May 1900 whilst a Boatman serving at Southwold. On 1 July 1913 he was rated a Chief Petty Officer, Coast Guard, and continued to serve in that capacity throughout the Great War, being shore demobilised on 30 April 1919.