Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Italy, Kingdom, Medal of Merit of the Ministry of Marine, large bronze medal, 56mm, bust of Umberto I on obverse, the reverse inscribed ‘A Reynell Pack Propietario del R.Y. Squadron Cutter “Resolute.” Pei filantropici soccorsi prestati ai naufraghi d’italiani del pir fo. Inglese “Utopia” Gibilterra 17 marso 1891’, [Translation: To Reynell Pack, owner of the R.Y. Squadron Cutter “Resolute”. For charitable assistance rendered to shipwrecked Italian castaways of the English steamship “Utopia”, Gibraltar, 17 March 1891], contact marks and edge bruising, nearly very fine £240-£280

Arthur Denis Henry Heber Reynell Pack was born at London in 1860, the son of Lieutenant-Colonel A. J. Reynell Pack and his wife Frederica (née Hely Hutchinson). Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, his independent wealth allowed him to indulge his various interests, at the forefront of which was membership of the Royal Yacht Squadron. Between 1886 and 1898 he owned the 50 ton cutter Resolute, which he navigated on a number of ocean-going expeditions, usually spending the winter months on his estate in Madeira.

In March 1891, on one such trip, Resolute chanced to be at Gibraltar when disaster overtook the Anchor Line steamer Utopia of 2,731 tons (Captain J. M’Keague). Utopia had departed Naples on 12 March 1891, bound for New York, with 815 Italian emigrants among her passengers. In the early evening of 17 March, it being dark, a gale blowing and a strong current setting, the ship was in the Bay of Gibraltar close to the British Mediterranean Fleet which was at anchor. Captain M’Keague attempted to pass between the battleship H.M.S. Anson and the New Mole Head but at the last moment decided to cross the bow of the battleship instead. Through a grave error of judgement, the captain brought his ship too close to the Anson, making no allowance for the warship’s armoured ram which projected underwater from the bow. The ram entered the Utopia’s side just abaft of her centre tearing a hole 26 feet long 15 feet wide towards her stern. Travelling 200 yards on, with bulkheads and engines torn away, the ship soon began to settle by the stern. Terrified emigrants who had crowded the decks, excited to see land, fell or jumped into the raging sea. The ships of the fleet, the Swedish frigate Freya, and other vessels nearby, Resolute among them, immediately lowered boats to the rescue. Terror reigned on the liner as within 20 minutes the ship sank, with her keel resting on the bottom, her bridge awash and just her funnel and masts showing. The crews of the rescue boats performed prodigies of heroism and rescued many from the sea; of the 880 people aboard the Utopia, 311 were saved, but 569 were drowned or missing, including 20 of the ship’s crew.

Resolute’s small boat, crewed by her mate and three seamen, managed to rescue 14 emigrants and deposit them aboard the Swedish frigate, before damage and the exceptionally rough conditions forced them to abandon their efforts. Each received Board of Trade Sea Gallantry Medals and medals of the Royal Humane Society, similar rewards being granted to sailors of the Royal and Swedish Navies and the Gibraltar Port Department, as well as two Albert Medals. The Italian Government also showed its gratitude by the bestowal of honours, including the Medaglia Al Valore di Marina. For his part, Reynell Pack received a separate honour, the Medaglia in Bronzo di Benemerenza del Ministero della Marina, which may be considered equivalent to the British Board of Trade Sea Gallantry Medal for Foreign Services.

Between 1881 and 1914 Arthur Reynell Pack owned Sulgrave Manor, Northamptonshire, home of the ancestors of President George Washington; his connections to the county also extending to a commission in the Northamptonshire and Rutland Militia, and office as a Justice of the Peace. In the early months of the Great War he was commissioned as a Lieutenant-Commander in the Royal Naval Reserve. He also maintained a home at Netherton House, Newton Abbot, Devon, where he died in 1937.