PERSONALIA

1. Campaign medals

£500

Confirmed on the South Africa Medal roll.

£250

William Beecham was born near Horncastle, Lincolnshire about 1823, and entered the Royal Artillery  on 6th April 1841. He served abroad at St Helena for ten years, before joining the Crimean campaign (his papers confirm his entitlement to the Crimea medal with the Sebastopol clasp). He received a silver long service and good conduct medal, and was discharged for completion of service on 3rd May 1862.

John McGuire was born in the parish of Blacklog, Londonderry in 1836. He was a labourer by trade and joined the 44th Foot on 19th April 1854 to serve in the Crimea (papers confirm the Crimea medal with Sebastopol clasp). He was transferred and posted to India with the 6th Foot on 18th September 1857 becoming a sergeant Instructor of Musketry, returning to England in 1862. He saw service again in India from 1867-1870. Despite good conduct, he faced two courts martial during his service - in 1862 receiving a reduced sentence, and in 1871 when he was reduced to the ranks as private (working his way back to sergeant by 1872). He was discharged with a pension in 1876.

£200

Unresearched.

£200

Unresearched.

£250

The entitlement of Private William Turner to the four clasps is confirmed in the medal roll. Against the entry is a note "Deserted 22.4.02 placed under protective custody under AO 129/10 11.8.10 Medals returned.  Address:- c/o Mrs W.Barber, 5 Bygrove Street, Poplar".

Unresearched.

£120

Unresearched.

2. Award medals

£350

This medal was awarded to Peter William Barlow (1809–1885), the civil engineer, who was born at Woolwich, the elder son of  Professor Peter Barlow (1776–1862), engineer and mathematician. He was educated at private schools and went on to follow his ambition of a career in civil engineering by becoming a pupil of Henry Robinson Palmer (1795–1844), a founder member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), who proposed him as an associate member in January 1826 (ODNB). Barlow went on to build bridges (he designed the first Lambeth Bridge over the Thames) and tunnels, developing new techniques, notably the cylindrical tunnelling shield which he patented in 1864. Barlow won this medal at the early age of 15 for drawing a transit theodolite, in itself interesting as this was a new invention at the time (1824), indicating Barlow's early interest in civil engineering instruments, as well as his skills as a draughtsman.

£200

Henry Cheadle (1852-1910) was a landscape painter in oils, most of whose subjects were painted in the Midlands and North Wales.  He studied at the Birmingham Society of Arts, receiving this medal in 1867,  and was awarded a silver medal for studies undertaken in South Kensington. He exhibited 258 works at the Royal Society of British Artists, 105 at Birmingham City Art Gallery, and elsewhere.

£50

The "Metropolitan" is probably the Metropolitan School of Design which opened in 1837, and eventually became the Royal College of Art

£120

Edwin Harrison (1867-1903) was a well know photographer who lived and worked in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. He was the son of carver and gilder George Harrison and Anne Stevenson (they married in 1835 in Newcastle-under-Lyme), and is recorded as an apprentice in the 1851 census. In 1862 Edwin married Hannah Gosling by whom he had two sons and two daughters. Edwin set up business as a photographer, joined by 1891 his son Alfred. In the 1881 census Edwin describes himself as an artist (painter), which in 1891 is also the profession of his daughter Annie. A monumental inscription for Edwin and Hannah (known as Annie), together with their daughter Evelyn, is recorded in Newcastle-under-Lyme Cemetery.

£75

Charles H.E.Ogilvie was a Scottish artist who painted in oils. His work was exhibited between 1903 and 1928, including eleven works being shown at the Glasgow Institute for the Fine Arts, and two works at the Royal Scottish Academy.

£200

The recipient of this medal was Sir Edmund Frederick Du Cane (1830–1903), prison administrator and army officer. Du Cane joined the Royal Engineers in 1848, and after service in Western Australia supervising the management and building of prisons, he became involved in convict prisons in Britain, becoming chairman of the convict prison directors, surveyor-general of prisons, and inspector-general of military prisons. He was promoted major in July 1872, lieutenant-colonel in December 1873, and four years later brevet colonel, and was also made CB (civil division) in 1873. In the same year he proposed that local prisons (administered by local magistrates) should be placed under central Government control. The resulting 1877 Prisons Act gave control of all 116 local prisons of England and Wales to a new London-based Prison Commission, of which Du Cane became the chairman (ODNB).

Du Cane was an accomplished painter in water-colours, and his sketches of Peninsular War battlefields were exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition at Chelsea in 1890, and this Exhibition medal was presumably in part awarded for a painting entry ('No. 2350'). Du Cane's wider interest in the arts dated back to his position as assistant superintendent of the foreign side of the Great Exhibition of 1851, and assistant secretary to the juries of awards (ODNB).

£200

Richard Burns Macpherson (1852-1914) was born in 1852 in Port Glasgow, Renfrew, Scotland. According to his obituary (BMJ 13 June 1914) he was the first Rainy bursar and Arnott scholar of Glasgow University in 1875-6; graduated M.B., C.M. with honours, and was awarded the Brunton Memorial Medal as the most distinguished graduate of the year. He took the degree of M.D. in 1885. He served with the Turkish army through the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-8, and received the thanks of the Turkish Government and the Imperial Order of the Medjidie. Macpherson was in practice in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, for thirty five years, and was medical officer of health and parochial medical officer for the parish. He married Jane Cameron in 1878 and had at least eight children (1891 & 1901 census).

£50

The Heriot-Watt College was formed in 1885 from the merger of the Watt Institution & the School of Arts and the Heriot trust bequest, providing general and technical education (becoming a university in 1966). The first Professor of Mechanics and Engineering, Chemistry, and Physics was appointed in 1887, and James Reid was one of the first class medal recipients in the department, attaining 88% in his Engineering course 1888-1889 (Heriot Watt University archives).

Details of the recipient not traced.

£50

Interesting given the subject of the award for painting china, but the recipient has not been traced further.

£300

Karl Moritz Immisch (1838-1903), electrical engineer, watchmaker and iventor, was born in Niederschmon, near Querfurt in Germany, the son of a watchmaker. Known as 'Moritz Immisch', he received a technical education and left Germany around 1860 to seek opportunities in England. Settling in London he married Emma Welch in 1876 at St John's Church, Marylebone.

Initially Immisch applied his watchmaking skills to develop precision clockwork mechanisms and other improvements. He became a Council Member of the British Horological Institute, and in 1872 submitted an essay on 'The balance spring and its isochronal adjustments' which was awarded the Institute's Baroness Burdett Coutts Prize.

In 1881 Immisch patented a small watch-shaped thermometer. More robust than contemporary glass thermometers filled with mercury, it allowed very accurate readings to be taken, and its handy size made it highly portable as a clinical instrument. It was awarded a Silver Medal at the International Medical Congress of 1881 and elsewhere, including the 1887 silver medal offered here. The very small size made the device very popular and it was referred to in many medical journals throughout the 1880s both in England and in the US.

Immisch was innovative in many other areas notably electro-magnetism, and established with others a small company Messrs M. Immisch & Co. in Kentish Town to develop and manufacture electric motors (see Wikipedia article).

£50

Two silver and two bronze medals were awarded between 1893-1920 to the best candidates and second best candidates in the Oxford Local and Cambridge Local Senior exams in physical geography and political geography. This medal was awarded to Leonard Blackler in December1893 for physical geography. A Leonard Blackler is found in the 1908 Navy List, serving as Secretary on board HMS Cormorant.

£250

The Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, was founded in 1826, and became the Royal Scottish Academy upon the granting of its Royal Charter in 1838. This fine medal was engraved by B.Wyon after designs by Sir Joseph Noel Paton RSA. It was awarded retrospectively (probably to his family) in memory of Alexander Forbes (1802-1839), one of the Academy's early Associates, elected in 1830. Forbes was born in Aberdeen, and taught art in Edinburgh. He quickly became a highly skilled painter of animals in oils, becoming known as the 'Landseer of the north'. He died prematurely aged 37, but had 64 paintings exhibited at the RSA.

Probably John Reid, gas engineer, found in the 1861 census, in Leith, who was born about 1813 in Perth. 

£100

An interesting medal in being a prize for the Owen Jones Competition, named after the famous architect, printer, and designer, best known for his classic publication, the Grammar of Ornament published 1856. Further research is needed into the identity of Emma Hodgkinson.

£50

Matthew George Taylor was born in Heyton, Lancashire, in 1843. He married Alice Ann Phythian in 1876, and was an architect.

£250

Ruby Winifred Levick (1871/2–1940) was born in Llandaff, Glamorgan, and studied at the National Art Training School (later the Royal College of Art), South Kensington, from about 1893 to 1897. A new emphasis on modelling, as opposed to carving, and a resurgence of interest in small-scale sculpture, enabled women artists to make a significant contribution to the previously male-dominated field of sculpture. Following the award of this medal in 1895, she gained a British Institution scholarship for modelling, and the princess of Wales scholarship. She became extremely competent in small-scale sculpture, decorative relief work and stained-glass, exhibited widely, and become admired among others, by Queen Alexandra. (ODNB)

£200

Frank Belshaw was born in Nottingham in 1855, studied art at the Nottingham School of Art, and was a founder member (and Secretary 1881) of the Nottingham Society of Artists. He won this medal in 1882, and a silver medal, and had work exhibited at the Royal Academy and Royal Society of British Artists. He painted landscape and still-life subjects, but died prematurely aged 29 in 1884.

£150

Richard John Durley was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1868, the son of Richard and Elizabeth Durley. His father died in the year of his birth, and his mother became a schoolteacher. Richard is recorded as a marine engineer in the 1891 census, but is not found in the 1901 census. A Richard John Durley is found in the Mechanical Engineering Department of McGill University in Canada in the early 20th century, who in 1903 published a standard text for students "Kinematics of Machines", but further research is needed to verify the link.

£75

Possibly Joseph William Priestley born in 1842 in Rochdale, Lancashire, who is found in the 1861 census in Halifax, Yorkshire, with his sisters and brother supporting his widowed mother Jane Priestley (born c 1807), working as a wool sorter.

£500

Awarded to William Henry Smith (1825–1891), later the newsagent (of W.H.Smith fame) and politician. Born in London, the only son of William Henry and Mary Ann Smith, he was educated at home, and for a short period in 1839, attended Tavistock Grammar School, where he received this silver medal. Smith hoped to go to Oxford and take holy orders, but his father installed him in his small newsagent business in the Strand. William took the business in a new direction setting up bookstalls at railway stations, and by 1862 had secured bookstall rights at all the major network stations. He made many innovations in the trade, but leaving the day-to-day management to others, he was able to move to a career in politics. He was elected MP for Westminster in 1868, was promoted to the cabinet in 1877, and was given further high office in successive governments. (ODNB)

Archibald Hugh Payon Dawnay (1870-1918) is found in the 1891 census, a medical student aged 20, born in Peckham, living at Camberwell with his father Archibald D. Dawnay a civil engineer (aged 49, born Christian Malford, Wiltshire), his mother Isabelle (aged 43, born Islington, Surrey), and younger bothers Osmond and Percy. He married Annie Burgess Townsend in 1899, and by 1911 is a medical practitioner living with his wife in St Marylebone. His father the civil engineer Sir Archibald D. Dawnay (1842-1919), became Mayor of Wandsworth, and left a bequest through which London County Council established in 1921 the Archibald Dawnay Scholarships for the Promotion of Studies in Civil Engineering.

Harmer went to King's College, Cambridge, where he had a distinguished career as exhibitioner, scholar, and fellow. In 1885 he became university lecturer in advanced invertebrate morphology, and five years later became superintendent of the University Museum of Zoology. Harmer was appointed keeper of zoology at the British Museum (Natural History) in 1907 and from 1919 to 1927 was its director. Throughout his life he inspired affection by his gentleness, courtesy, and kindness. ODNB

£300

Caesar Litton Falkiner (1863-1908) was a politician, barrister and a writer on literary and historical topics. Born in Dublin, he went to Dublin University where he graduated BA in 1886 and proceeded MA in 1890. In 1885 he was elected President of the college Philosophical Society (who had awarded him this silver medal the previous year) giving a presidential address entitled ‘A new voyage to Utopia’. In 1887 Falkiner was called to the Irish bar, and in 1888 he began to work actively on behalf of the unionist cause. Falkiner devoted much time to the study of Irish history and literature, publishing a number of scholarly works, but he died at the age of 45 in an accident in the Alps. (ODNB)

£300

Richard Robert Cherry (1859–1923), politician and judge, was born in Waterford, Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (1875–9), where he took part in athletics, as well as being a senior moderator and double gold medallist in mental science and history and political science. In 1881 he trained in law at the King's Inns, Dublin, and the Middle Temple, and was called to the Irish bar. Cherry won this medal whilst still a member of the University of Dublin Philosophical Society. He became a leading lawyer and judge, and was appointed lord chief justice of Ireland in 1914. (ODNB)

£75

Ernest Masson Anderson was born in Falkirk, Scotland in 1877, the son of the Congregational Minister John Anderson and his wife Annie. He became a well known structural geologist. He was elected FRSE in 1920, and in 1949 received the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London.

Archibald Brown (1841-1916) was a barrister of the Middle Temple who studied at Edinburgh and Oxford universities. Brown published many works on the law including his succinct and popular New Law Dictionary in 1874 for which he is best known, the latest edition of which appeared in 2006.

Robert Fraser Calder Leith (1854-1936), MB, CM, studied medicine at Edinburgh University, where he was awarded these medals. He was President of Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh 1885-1886. In 1899 Leith was appointed Professor of Pathology at Birmingham’s Mason College, which became incorporated into the newly founded University of Birmingham the following year. The Medical School’s facilities for undertaking bacteriological work greatly improved following Leith’s appointment in 1900, and in 1907 the University constructed a new Pathology building. Leith retired in 1919, but his name was attached to the Chair of Experimental Pathology in 1949, and transferred to the Chair of Pathology in 1966.

£100

Alfred Alexander Murray was born in Edinburgh in 1863, the son of a law clerk Joseph Anderson and his wife Margaret. In 1891 he is recorded in the census as a law agent & lawyer's managing clerk, and by 1901 as writer to HM Signet. In 1901 he is living in Edinburgh with his wife Mary, and with a Norwegian servant Gunda Jorgenson. The latter is probably in some way relevant as in 1902 he gave a lecture to the Edinburgh Photographic Society entitled "By Stockholm to Lapland".

Thomas Morton, one of the most able surgeons of his time, was was born in 1813 in Newcastle upon Tyne, the youngest son of Joseph Morton, a master mariner.  On the completion of an apprenticeship at the Newcastle upon Tyne Infirmary in 1832, he entered University College, London. Here he was awarded four prizes: two gold medals respectively for surgery and midwifery, and two silver medals for anatomy (this medal) and practical anatomy. Morton was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1835, and was appointed house surgeon at the North London (later University College) Hospital. In 1842 he became assistant surgeon, and although was made full surgeon, he was not given the professorship he sought. Finding increasing private practice no substitute for the hospital work he desired, Morton's depression continued. This, combined with an obsessive concern about drinking, led to his death by suicide, by taking prussic acid, on 30 October 1849. ODNB.

Carl Hentschel  was born in Lodz, Russia in1864, settled in England, and married Bertha Posner in 1889. Their daughter Irene married the theatre critic and writer Ivor John Carnegie Brown, and another daughter, Olga, married the novelist William Pett Ridge. Hentschel was a photo-engraver by trade, and was a founder member of the Playgoer's Club established in 1884. His friend Jerome K. Jerome a co-founder of the Club, later immortalised Hentschel as "Harris" in Three Men in a Boat.

END OF MEDALS SECTION