Medals for Services at Sea from the Collection of the Late Oliver Stirling Lee

Pair: Able Seaman H. Skinner, Royal Navy, late H.M. Coast Guard

Visit to Ireland 1903 (H. Skinner, Commd. Boatman), officially engraved naming, complete with shamrock brooch-bar; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., V.R., narrow suspension (Boatn., H.M. Coast Guard), impressed naming, the first polished, about very fine, the second rather better, extremely rare (2) £300-400

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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One of just 19 Visit to Ireland 1903 Medals awarded to the R.N. and H.M. Coast Guard (ADM. 171/61 refers).

Hubert Skinner was born at Lytchet, Dorset in June 1861 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in January 1877. Having witnessed no active service, he transferred to H.M. Coast Guard in June 1893, was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in October 1897 and was a Commissioned Boatman based at Killary Bay at the time of the royal visit to Ireland in 1903. Skinner was pensioned in May 1910 but was recalled in August 1914 in the rate of Able Seaman, and served in one capacity or another at the R.N. College Osborne until, tragically, in April 1917, he ‘hanged himself during a fit of temporary insanity’ while on leave.