The rare Gold Albert Medal group of five awarded to Mr A. T. Shuttleworth, Deputy Conservato...

The rare Gold Albert Medal group of five awarded to Mr A. T. Shuttleworth, Deputy Conservator of Forests (Bombay District), late Indian Navy Albert Medal, 1st Class, for Gallantry in Saving Life at Sea, gold and enamel, the reverse officially numbered ‘No. 14’ and inscribed (Presented in the name of Her Majesty to A. T. Shuttleworth. Wrecks of the “Berwickshire” “Die Vernon” and “Terzah” 1866 and 1867) the reverse of the crown with maker’s cartouche ‘Phillips Cockspur S’, fitted with silver-gilt riband buckle; India General Service 1854-94, 1 clasp, Persia (A. T. Shuttleworth, Captns. Clk. Ferooz S.F.) fitted with silver riband buckle; Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners Royal Benevolent Society, gold (Allen Shuttleworth, Esqr. 1867) fitted with silver-gilt riband buckle; Lloyd’s Medal for Saving Life at Sea, 1st large type glazed silver medallion, 73mm (Allen Thornton Shuttleworth Esq. late Indian Navy. 25th September 1867) lacking reverse lunette; Royal Humane Society, large bronze medal (Successful), (Mr A. T. Shuttleworth, 1 August 1866) fitted with bronze riband buckle, generally good very fine (5) £12,000-£16,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Brian Ritchie Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, March 2005. Allen Thornton Shuttleworth, the son of Digby Edward Shuttleworth, Indigo Planter, was born in the Meerpore district of Pubna on 21 October 1839. He was educated under Mr J. Whitely at Woolwich Common and was nominated for the post of Captain’s Clerk in the Indian Navy by Captain John Shepherd on the recommendation of his uncle. Shuttleworth was admitted into the Indian Navy on 12 December 1855, and having taken the oath ‘to be true and faithful to the said Company, and faithfully and truly execute and discharge the trust reposed in me, to the utmost of my skill and power. So Help me God’, he left Gravesend on the Cairngorm on the 24th. In a letter dated ‘31 December off the Isle of Wight’, the captain of the Cairngorm reported that they had commenced their voyage to Bombay. Shuttleworth landed after a four month voyage on 21 April 1856, and was appointed Captain’s Clerk on the 8-gun H.E.I. Company’s Steam Frigate Ferooz. He was then one of twenty-four Captain’s Clerks in the Service and was paid Rs. 50 per month, which if he attained the rank of Captain in 30 to 35 years time could be expected to rise to rise to Rs. 600-800 per month. During the build up to war with Persia in 1856, Commander Rennie of the Ferooz was ordered to sail to Bushire with despatches for the Political Resident. The Ferooz left on 19 September 1856, but on reaching the Persian coast, Commander Rennie was advised to abandon his mission on account of ‘the excited state of the population’. Despite the warning, Rennie resolved to deliver his despatches on shore. C. R. Low, the author of the History of the Indian Navy, who was then a shipmate and contemporary of Shuttleworth’s, later recalled, ‘We remember, being then a Midshipman on board the Ferooz, how this judicious, as well as gallant, officer [Commander Rennie], who had ‘an eye to business’ whenever any fighting was on the tapis, took advantage of this last opportunity of reconnoitring Bushire, to take careful soundings both in going ashore and returning, to be of use in eventualities.’ Having returned to Bombay the Ferooz sailed again for Bushire in late November, this time towing two transports containing men of Major-General Stalker’s division. In the absence of any response to the British ultimatum demanding the Persian withdrawal from Herat, war was declared. The Union flag was hoisted at Kharrack for the first time in sixteen years and a Royal salute fired from the guns of the Ferooz. Offensive operations began in November with the capture of Bushire. Troops were landed at Hallilah Bay under covering fire from eight gun boats, and proceeded to storm fort of Reshire. That night Commander Rennie sent a boat with muffled oars to buoy a fourteen-foot channel off the batteries which next day enabled the Ferooz to take up a position 300 yards closer in shore than the other vessels. In the ensuing action the Ferooz was engaged in a duel with the Persian shore batteries until they were silenced and a breach effected in Bushire’s walls, whereupon the enemy flagstaff was hauled down and the garrison surrendered. The Ferooz then returned to Bombay while Lieutenant-General Sir James Outram led the expeditionary force in land and defeated the Persians at the battle of Khoosh-Ab. Again returning to the Persian Gulf, the Ferooz was next involved in silencing the heavily fortified position at Mohammerah, on the junction of the Karoon and Shatt-ul-Arab, where a Persian Army, thirteen thousand strong, had assembled under the Shahzada. Batteries had been erected of solid earth, twenty feet thick, eighteen feet high, armed with heavy ordnance placed to sweep the entire river at the junction of the Karoon with the Shatt-ul-Arab. An attempt to place a mortar battery on an island failed when the island turned out to be a swamp, but the ingenious Commander Rennie, in defiance of the engineers who said the first shot would smash it, constructed a raft of casks and studding-sail booms, which, armed with two 8-inch and two 5-inch mortars manned by the Bombay Artillery, was towed into position opposite the forts. The ships of war were given the first task of silencing the batteries, which they accomplished at point blank range under heavy fire, then landed parties of seamen to storm the southern and northern forts. To quote General Havelock ‘the gentlemen in blue had it all to themselves, and left us naught to do’. The British loss was only ten killed and thirty wounded, owing largely to Rennie’s ‘happy thought’ of placing trusses in the sides of the Ferooz, from which vast numbers of bullets were shaken out. The bold step of closing at point blank range also took them under the elevation of the Persian guns. Shuttleworth was not actively engaged in the Mutiny, but served in supporting naval operations in the 1800-ton H.E.I.C. Steam Frigate Assaye as Assistant Paymaster. Promoted Paymaster and transferred to the 300-ton Steam-gun boat Clyde in which he served the last three years of his career in the Indian Navy, Shuttleworth next took part in operations against the piratical Waghurs, who, having seized the island fort of Beyt and the fort of Dwarka, were levying large imposts from the pilgrims who came to worship at the great temple dedicated to Krishna. An expedition was mounted including H.M’s 28th Foot, 6th N.I. and a Marine Battalion, accompanied by the Ferooz, Zenobia, Berenice, Victoria, Clyde, Constance and the Lady Falkland. On 5 and 6 October, the fort at Beyt, with earthwork walls 18-40 feet thick and 30-40 feet high, and lofty, massive towers with guns, was under continual bombardment from the naval ships. Troops were landed in an attempt to storm the fort, with boats’ crews and field pieces in support, but failed in the face of heavy fire from the defenders. The Waghurs, however, evacuated the fort soon after dark and it was occupied the next day. To launch the attack on Dwarka, the force then moved to Roopon Bunder, two miles up the coast to the only place where the surf permitted a landing. The beach, however, was covered by the guns of an imposing fort. On the 19th, the Clyde, towing a naval landing party in cutters from the Ferooz, Zenobia and Berenice, opened a bombardment, and successfully put the sailors ashore. Much to the surprise of the Colonel commanding the field force,...