The first naval Victoria Cross of the First World War is coming to auction at Noonans on July 23, estimated at £200,000-260,000 (photo: Noonans).
Estimated at £200,000-260,000, it was awarded to Captain Henry Peel Ritchie of the Royal Navy, who was born in Edinburgh, and will be sold with his other medals.
Ritchie of the Royal Navy won the Senior Service’s first VC of the conflict for his gallant command of HMS Goliath’s steam pinnace at Dar-es-Salaam in east Africa on November 28, 1914.
The first naval Victoria Cross of the First World War is coming to auction at Noonans on July 23, estimated at £200,000-260,000 (photo: Noonans).
Nimrod Dix, deputy chairman of Noonans and director of the medal department, says: “When the pinnace came under a withering fire, 38-year-old Ritchie took over the wheel from his wounded coxswain and steered for the harbour’s entrance, but it took 20 minutes to get clear, in which period he was wounded eight times – on the forehead, in the left hand, twice in the left arm, in his right arm and hip and, finally, by two bullets through his right leg.”
Ritchie, who was promoted captain on the Retired List in January 1924, died in Edinburgh in 1958, aged 83.
The first naval Victoria Cross of the First World War is coming to auction at Noonans on July 23, estimated at £200,000-260,000 (photo: Noonans).
All things nautical
It is included in the first part of the collection of the late Jason Pilalas (1941-2023) who was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, and grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut. His love of all things nautical stemmed from his service as an officer in the United States Navy, with whom he completed three tours of Vietnam.
Dix adds: “He was not only a man of many talents, but he was also a man of many interests, none more so than his relentless pursuit of knowledge of all things relating to the Royal Navy. This voracious appetite for knowledge being matched only by his seemingly unquenchable thirst to collect objects relating to his passion.”
Defending Malta
Elsewhere in the collection, which covers more than 200 years of naval history, is the unique Second World War bomb and mine disposal George Cross and Distinguished Service Cross group of 10 awarded to Lieutenant-Commander William Ewart Hiscock, RN. It is estimated at £80,000-120,000.
Dix adds: “In his capacity as Controlled Mining Officer at HMS St Angelo, Malta, Hiscock dealt with no fewer than 125 ‘incidents’ at the height of the island’s siege, among them an ‘Italian torpedo machine’ and other unknown types of ordnance: in dismantling the former, which contained a 650lb high explosive charge fitted with four firing devices and a time fuse, the clock mechanism whirred into action, but he calmly neutralised the device nonetheless.
“Tragically, he and his wife were killed in a bombing raid on Valetta in February 1942, just a few days after the announcement of his award of the GC, so it was presented to one of his daughters by King George VI at Buckingham Palace on June 23, 1942.”
