The Preston-Morley Buckinghamshire Collection: Commemorative Medals

THE PRESTON-MORLEY BUCKINGHAMSHIRE COLLECTION, Eton College, a silver award medal for Rowing, type 1, unsigned [by W.J. Taylor], similar, edge named (D. Ricardo, 2nd in the Pulling, 1858), 38mm (D & W 196). Good fine, an early award (£60-80)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Preston-Morley Buckinghamshire Collection: Commemorative Medals.

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Provenance:
BDW Medal Auction, 1 December 1993, lot 256.

David Ricardo (†April 1876); eldest son of Capt M.R. Ricardo of Kidlington, Oxon; at Eton 1855-8. Ricardo, described as weighing 9st 2lb, enjoyed the unusual distinction of being both a lower boat and an upper boat choice in 1858. He was in the victorious Eton team which defeated a combined Exeter and Balliol boat on a course between the Victoria and Albert Bridges, the Eton boat built by Matt Taylor. At the Henley Regatta on 26 June 1858, the Eton crew narrowly defeated a team from Radley, a keenly anticipated match because, according to the Eton Boating Book, p.xxxviii, “nobody [at Eton] knew where or what Radley was.” Ricardo placed second to V.W. van der Weyer in the School Pulling on 7 June 1858 (medal). He was commissioned into the 15th Hussars as a Cornet on 13 May 1859, became a Lt on 3 July 1860 and a Captain on 23 June 1863, but had retired from the Army by 1875. Further details are sold with the lot