Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Able Seaman H. Rolling, Royal Navy

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 7 clasps, Belmont, Modder River, Paardeberg, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Belfast (126128 A.B., H.M.S. Doris); 1914-15 Star (126128 A.B., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (126128 A.B., R.N.), the first with one or two unofficial clasp rivets on account of the late despatch of his “Johannesburg” clasp, in addition to a slightly bent suspension post, edge bruising and contact marks, about very fine and extremely rare, the remainder rather better (4) £800-1000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals for Services at Sea from the Collection of the Late Oliver Stirling Lee.

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Henry Rolling was born at St. Austell, Cornwall in August 1868 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in January 1884. His subsequent stints of active service comprised extensive employment in the Naval Brigade landed in South Africa from H.M.S. Doris between November 1899 and October 1900, his verified Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, with 7 clasps being one of just 37 such awards won by men of the Royal Navy - accompanying notes suggest that in all probability Rolling was a member of the 4.7-inch gun crew of “Joe Chamberlain” and quite possibly a participant of the famous charge at Graspan. During the Great War he served aboard the light cruiser Talbot from August 1914 until February 1915, which period witnessed her interception and capture of the German vessel Goldbek, and thereafter at assorted training establishments. He was demobilised in March 1919.