Donation of Naval Memorabilia
November 8, 2023 @ 08:00 - November 8, 2024 @ 17:00
Date: 08NOV23
Author: BRNC Public Relations Office
Captain Sarah Oakley RN had the honour of hosting Mr John Thring and his sister Susan, who had made the journey to the college to gift to BRNC their grandfather, Walter Thring’s collection of Naval memorabilia.
Walter Hugh Charles Samuel Thring, passed the Competition of Cadetships to join the Royal Navy in 1887 at the age of 13. His Naval career beginning when the Naval College was still a hulk moored on the Dart. In 1888 Walter won the Term Prize and was presented with an engraved telescope; one of several awards Walter would receive in his Naval Career.
In 1891 he was presented with the First Admiralty prize for drawing. His talent for drawing was captured in his Midshipman’s journal kept while serving on HMS Warspite. The journal illustrating Warspite’s northward movements is filled with hand-drawn pen and ink charts and watercolour pictures of memorable sites and scenes. Not only was he a skilled artist but an excellent mathematician, building a prototype rate of change of range calculator which was later modified and adopted for use by the RN. Assigned to the battleship HMS Vengeance based at the China Station, the now Commander Thring received the Order of the Rising Sun, awarded for his service as advisor to the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1904.
The Thring family felt BRNC would be the most fitting place for his journal and awards to reside, historians Jane Harrold and Richards Porter were delighted to receive the collection for display in the college museum. Captain Sarah Oakley commented “As a navigator, to see hand drawn charts to such detail and precision will be something of special interest to the Officer cadets and visitors; we thank the family for taking the time to visit us today and donating their grandfather’s memorabilia.”