Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Royal National Institute for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, G.IV.R., silver, (Captn. Owen Anthony, voted 6 Feb. 1833) fitted with a replacement base silver metal suspension, jeweller’s mark to obverse left field, edge bruising and contact marks, nearly very fine £220-260

‘3 December 1832: In severe weather the ship Iphegenia, en route from New Brunswick to Newry, Co. Down, Northern Ireland, struck rocks to the leeward of Holyhead Harbour, Anglesey, but was not discovered until she was set fast on them. The Harbour Master’s boat was nearby when the ship’s hawsers parted, and he was able to rescue all the crew except one, who was taken off by the lifeboat after the ship had gone on the rocks. Captains Owen and Anthony helped man the lifeboat’. (Ref. Lifeboat Gallantry by Barry Cox).

Three silver R.N.I.P.L.S. medals were awarded for this rescue: Coxswain Robert Stables of the Holyhead Lifeboat; Master Mariner William Owen, a former African trader, and Master Mariner Owen Anthony, who was in the West Indies trade.