Printed from Woolley & Wallis

Description

Royal Navy and maritime interest: a presentation engraved silver pocket knife, 'A. COOK from CAPT. O. BACKHOUSE C.B. XMAS 1917', with two steel folding blades, by Walker and Hall; together with another silver pocket knife, engraved 'Souvenir of Voyage by R.M.S. Tarquah', with a single silver blade, Walker and Hall, Sheffield 1913; and a relief decorated souvenir pocket knife for the Red Cross Ship Henry Dunant, one side displaying the vessel, the other with details of the shipyard. [3]

Captain (later Admiral) Oliver Backhouse, C.B., was born in 1876 and entered the navy in 1890. He served (as a Lieutenant) in the Somaliland Expedition of 1903-04 and was promoted Commander in June 1908, and Captain in June 1914. He served in the Royal Naval Division in the siege of Antwerp in October 1914, qualifying for the 1914 Star - a rare award to Naval personnel. In February 1915 he embarked for the Mediterranean with the 2nd Brigade Royal Naval Division and was made a Companion of the Bath (C.B.) for his services at Gallipoli. He commanded H.M.S. Orion at the Battle of Jutland in June 1916, and was commended for his services in the London Gazette of the 15th September that year.