Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Chief Boatswain’s Mate F. Manning, Royal Navy

Jubilee 1887, bronze, with 1897 clasp; Coronation 1902, bronze; Coronation 1911; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., V.R., narrow suspension (Fredk. Manning. Qr. Mr. H.M.Y. Victoria & Albert) impressed naming, polished, light contact marks, generally very fine and better (4) £300-400

Provenance: Douglas-Morris Collection, Part II, DNW, February 1997.

Frederick Manning was born at Tiverton, Devon in January 1850 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in January 1868. Remarkably, having joined the royal yacht Victoria & Albert as a Keeper of the Barge in September 1874, he went on to serve aboard her for nearly 20 years, finally being pensioned ashore as a Chief Boatswain’s Mate in October 1893. Awarded his Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in the interim, in January 1880, and the Jubilee Medal in 1887, his later awards remain unconfirmed, but it seems reasonable to contend that a man with such long “royal service” was retained by the Queen and her household on, or soon after his retirement.