Orders, Decorations and Medals Including five Special Collections

Transport 1899-1902, 1 clasp, S. Africa 1899-1902 (R. B. Irving) good very fine £400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Naval and Indian Marine Medals from the Collection of John Tamplin.

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Robert Beaufin Irving was born on 16 July 1877, the son of Colonel John Beaufin Irving of Bonshaw Tower, Kirtlebridge. He was educated at Fullands College, Taunton, at Ashborne Grammar School, and on the training ship H.M.S. Conway which he joined in 1891. Leaving the Conway he was apprenticed in sail and then secured miscellaneous experience in steam. He joined the Royal Naval Reserve in 1895 as a Midshipman and served as 3rd Officer of the Princess of Wales, hospital ship of the Albion S.M. Company, during the war in South Africa 1899-1902.

In 1904 Irving entered the service of the Cunard White Star Line as 4th Officer in the Veria. He served successively in the Caronia, Umbria, Lucania, Carpathia, Lusitania, Carmania, Ivenia, and Brescia. He was promoted Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve on 17 April 1909, and, in 1913, he was appointed Chief Officer of the Lusitania.

On the outbreak of of the Great War, Irving was appointed on 22 December 1914 to the light cruiser Yarmouth. He took part in the battle of Jutland and was mentioned in despatches, London Gazette 15 September 1916, being ‘Recommended to be noted for early promotion,’ and ‘Recommened for good service in action’; he was subsequently appointed an Acting Lieutenant-Commander. Awarded the R.N.R. Decoration on 25 January 1917, he was promoted Lieutenant-Commander, R.N.R., on 17 April 1917, and on 22 May 1917 appointed to H.M.S. Egmont at Malta for Special Service as a Transport Officer 2nd Grade. This duty included work in the Palestine campaign, and he was appointed an O.B.E. (Military) on 31 July 1919, for ‘valuable services as Naval Transport Officer in charge of the Landing of Military Stores on the Palestine Coast.’ On 31 December 1920 he was promoted Commander, R.N.R., and five years later, on 31 December 1925, Captain, R.N.R. Irving was appointed one of the two R.N.R. A.D.Cs. to the King on 29 September 1931, holding this appointment until 16 July 1932 when he was placed on the Retired List. He was authorized to fly the Blue Ensign by a Warrant dated 22 May 1925.

Upon his demobilization in 1919, Irving rejoined the Cunard Line and became Staff Captain in the Mauretania, and shortly afterwards, at the end of 1919, he obtained his first command as Captain of the Vennonia. Thereafter he was in command of the Samaria, Ascania, Laconia, Franconia and Scythia, and in 1931 he was appointed to command of the Aquitania, which he held for some six years. He was widely tipped for the command of the Queen Mary before the liner was completed, but the post fell to Sir Edgar T. Britten, Kt., R.D., and then to Captain R. V. Peel, who he succeeded as Captain of the Queen Mary in 1937.

Irving became Commodore Captain of the Cunard White Star fleet in 1938, in which year he won back for Great Britain the Blue Riband of the Atlantic, having crossed in 3 days, 21 hours and 48 minutes. He was Knighted in 1943, the honour being announced on June 2nd, and conferred on him at Buckingham Palace on July 13th. He retired from the Cunard White Star Line in 1944, and went to live at his ancestral home, Bonshaw Tower, Kirtlebridge, a few miles from Gretna Green. The house was built in A.D. 900 and had for centuries been the home of the Irvings, of which clan he was the head. From 1946 to 1952 he was a J.P. for Dumfriesshire, and in 1947 he was made a D.L. for the County. Commodore Sir Robert Irving, Kt., O.B.E., R.D., D.L., J.P., died in hospital at Carlisle on 28 December 1954, aged 77.