British War Medal 1914-20 : Petty Officer R H Farrington, Royal Australian Naval Brigade

British War Medal 1914 - 20. The recipient's number, rank, name and regiment are impressed around the edge. Obverse: The coinage head of King George V with the legend, 'GEORGIVS V BRITT: OMN: REX ET IND: IMP:'. Reverse: A naked figure of Saint George on horseback facing right. The horse is trampling an eagle shield representing the Central Powers and on a skull and crossbones symbolic of death; above the horse's head is the sun, symbolic of victory. Around the left and right circumference are the dates '1914' and '1918'. The medal is fitted with a fixed straight bar suspender. A piece of 32 mm wide ribbon with a broad orange watered band down the centre, bordered with white, black and blue stripes is attached to the suspender.

Awarded to Petty Officer Robert Henry Farrington who served with the Victorian Naval Contingent in China in 1900. He embarked aboard SS Salamis on 30 July 1900 and returned to Australia in SS Chingtu on 14 April 1901. Farrington was born on 26 July 1861 at Shirley, Hampshire, England. He joined the Victorian Colonial Navy in December 1888. By 1897 he had been awarded three Good Conduct Stripes. Farrington continued in the navy after his service in the Boxer Uprising in China and was awarded the Naval Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in 1904. He transferred to the Royal Australian Navy in 1911, as a petty officer, and was made a member of the instructional staff. He saw no sea-going service during the First World War and was discharged in 1923.