Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Able Seaman J. Fitzgerald, Royal Navy, who survived the loss of H.M.S. Nottingham in the North Sea in August 1916

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (Ord., H.M.S. Pelorus); British War and Victory Medals (197666 A.B., R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (197666 A.B., H.M.S. Nottingham), together with his official duplicate issues for the first and last, as claimed following the loss of H.M.S. Nottingham, generally good very fine and better (6) £250-300

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Barrett J. Carr Collection of Boer War Medals.

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Collection

A total of 229 Queen’s South Africa Medals were awarded to the ship’s company of H.M.S. Pelorus, 215 of them without clasp.

John Fitzgerald was born at Skibbereen, Cork in March 1881 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in January 1898. He subsequently served aboard H.M.S Pelorus throughout her commission off South Africa from December 1899 to June 1900, in which period she was responsible for boarding a remarkable tally of 167 vessels, including the German barque Marie - although evidence suggested her cargo of flour was destined for the Transvaal, the S.N.O. at Durban decided that she should be released.

Having been awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in May 1914, Fitzgerald served aboard the light cruiser Nottingham up until her demise at the hands of the U-52 in the North Sea on 19 August 1916, when three torpedo strikes finished her off with a loss of 38 men (and, no doubt, prompted his seemingly erroneous claim for duplicates of his Queen’s South Africa and L.S. & G.C. Medals), and in the cruiser Glorious from October 1916 though to the end of hostilities. Also entitled to the 1914-15 Star, he was pensioned ashore in April 1921.