The M.V.O. group of seven awarded to Rear-Admiral F. R. W. Morgan, Royal Navy, who won a...

The M.V.O. group of seven awarded to Rear-Admiral F. R. W. Morgan, Royal Navy, who won a ‘mention’ and special promotion for his services in Egypt in 1882, in addition to the Spanish Order of Naval Merit, 2nd Class, for his gallant intervention when the King and Queen of Spain were the victims of a bomb outrage in Madrid in May 1906

The Royal Victorian Order, M.V.O., Member’s 4th Class breast badge, silver-gilt and enamels, the reverse officially numbered ‘333’; Coronation 1902, silver; Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, dated reverse, no clasp (Sub, Lt. F. R. W. Morgan, R.N. H.M.S. “Minotaur”); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 1 clasp, Natal (Comdr. F. R. W. Morgan, R.N. H:M:S: Tartar.); France, Third Republic, Legion of Honour, Officer’s breast badge, gold and enamels, some light chips to enamel; Khedive’s Star, dated 1882; Spain, Kingdom, Order of Naval Merit, 2nd Class breast star, silver-gilt and enamels, in its Cejalvo, Madrid case of issue, this last with chips to blue anchor, the first six mounted court-style as worn, generally good very fine or better (7) £1,800-£2,200
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Importation Duty
This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK
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Provenance: Alan Hall Collection, June 2000.

M.V.O. London Gazette 11 August 1905.
Frederick Robert William Morgan was born in Dover, Kent on 17 November 1861, the son of Captain W. G. H. Morgan, R.N., and entered the Royal Navy as a Cadet in Britannia in July 1874. His first seagoing appointment was as a Midshipman in H.M.S. Sultan, the command of Captain H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, K.G., K.T., G.C.S.I., G.C.M.G., on the Mediterranean Station. Having also in the interim served on the China station in Iron Duke, the flagship of Vice-Admiral Robert Coote, C.B., young Morgan returned to home continue his studies and was advanced to Sub-Lieutenant in February 1881.
Appointed to the Minotaur in May 1882, the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir William Dowell, K.C.B., he and his shipmates were subsequently deployed to Alexandria in support of the Mediterranean Fleet during the opening phases of the Egyptian War. Moreover, Morgan was landed for service on shore, where he had charge of the station at Tel-el-Mahuta and served in the Naval Flotilla on the Sweetwater Canal. He was duly mentioned in Admiral Seymour’s despatch and was specially promoted to Lieutenant in November 1882.
A lengthy spell in the Far East ensued, in the corvettes Curacoa and Champion, prior to his gaining his first command, Torpedo Boat No. 70, in the summer of 1887. Having then attended gunnery and torpedo courses at Excellent, he served in the battleships Colossus and Camperdown; in the latter he was Flag Lieutenant to Vice-Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Squadron.
Morgan then gained the much-coveted post of First Lieutenant in the royal yacht Victoria & Albert, in which he served from August 1881 until August 1884 and was advanced to Commander. Clearly marked out for post rank, he next enjoyed a lengthy sojourn in the Admiralty’s Naval Intelligence Department from November 1885 until July 1899.
Better still, another stint of active service beckoned when, in July 1899, he was appointed to the command of the cruiser Tartar on the Cape of Good Hope station. In the absence of Captain Bearcroft, who was serving on shore with the Naval Brigade, Morgan took temporary command of the Philomel in 1900, from which he was landed with the Durban Defence Force and also much employed with the blockade of Delagoa Bay. He was promoted to Captain in June 1900.
In June 1904, the Admiralty appointed him Naval Attaché to France, Spain and Portugal, and it was in that capacity that he was awarded his M.V.O., on the occasion of the French fleet’s visit to Portsmouth in 1905. In May of the following year, he attended the marriage of King Alfonso XIII in Madrid, an event that went off with a bang. The diary of the Prince of Wales - later King George V – takes up the story:
‘Beautiful day but very hot …. Bomb was thrown from an upper window at the King and Queen’s carriage. It burst between the wheel horses and the front of the carriage killing about twenty people and wounding fifty or sixty, mostly officers and soldiers lining the route …. The British Ambassador Sir Maurice de Bunsen, General Sir Cecil Lowther and Captain F. R. W. Morgan, R.N., and four officers of the 16th Lancers, who were in a hotel close by, rushed out and stood in protection around the carriage and assisted Ena out of the carriage. Both she and Alfonso showed great courage and presence of mind …. ‘
A grateful King Alphonso bestowed decorations on the British officers for their gallant intervention, Morgan receiving the Order of Naval Merit, 2nd Class.
After three years as Naval Attaché, he returned to sea in September 1907, when he took command of the battleship Britannia in the Channel Squadron. Promoted to Rear-Admiral in June 1909, he attended the Senior Officers War Course and was looking forward to flying his flag for the first time. Alas, fate intervened, and he died of a heart attack on 13 April 1910, aged 48.