Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Royal Humane Society Medal awarded to Mr. R. K. Gilpin, Trinity House Pilot and Coxswain of the R.N.L.I. Lifeboat at Teignmouth

Royal Humane Society, small bronze medal (successful) (Richard Kemp Gilpin. 19th September, 1887.) with integral bronze riband buckle, minor edge nick, nearly extremely fine £140-£180

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of Peter and Dee Helmore.

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R.H.S. Case No. 23779: ‘At Noon on 19 September 1887 Stanley Pomeroy aged 9 was bathing near the Pier at Teignmouth. The boy got accidentally into the tidal channel and was carried away. Mr Gilpin with all his clothes on ran down the beach and swam out after the boy he succeeded in reaching him and bringing him into the shore’.

Richard Kemp Gilpin was baptised at East Teignmouth Church in 1849, the son of a Teignmouth ship’s pilot. Appointed Trinity House Pilot for Teignmouth in 1876 and Second Coxswain for the R.N.L.I. Teignmouth Lifeboat in 1877, he was further advanced to Superintendent Coxswain of the lifeboat in August 1880. Following his rescue in 1873 he continued in his duel roll as Trinity House Pilot and Coxswain of the local lifeboat until October 1900 when the R.N.L.I. retired him to pension. In March 1908 he again came to the attention of the R.H.S. when he rescued his brother from the harbour at Teignmouth (R.H.S. Case No. 35865), being awarded a Testimonial on Parchment. Retiring to pension from Trinity House in 1921 he died at Teignmouth on 13 June 1927, aged 78.

Sold with copied research together with two early postcards depicting a pilot boat bringing a sailing vessel into Teignmouth Harbour and Teignmouth Harbour; and a booklet ‘The History of Teignmouth Lifeboats’ by Jeff Morris, published 2001.