The engraved medal has a remarkable history.
They say that every object carries a story, well this curious object has more than most! The school prize medal looks ordinary enough at a first glance, but it is its background that has sparked interest nationwide.
The silver engraved 1824 ‘Halloran School Prize Medal’ was previously owned by a private UK collector who has now put it up for auction. There are only five others similar to it.
It was presented to a 14 year old schoolboy by the name of John Dawning Tawell, an immigrant to Australia from the UK who had only arrived in Sydney the previous year. Tawell received his medal from the notorious Laurence Hynes Halloran (O’Halloran).
Halloran had a colourful and controversial history. Born in Ireland he went into the navy where he was jailed for stabbing and killing a fellow sailor, a crime for which he was later acquitted. Later on he was also to be charged with immorality. He married Mary Boutcher and had a total of nine children with her. He ran a school in Exeter and an academy at Alphington until he became insolvent.
Posing as a chaplain, he served on the Brittania at the Battle of Trafalgar. He then lived in South Africa for a while where he was banished and heavily fined for defamatory libel upon publication of a satire on South African Characteristics.
Halloran was a dab hand at getting into trouble.
Halloran returned to England but trouble followed him and he was found guilty of forgery and sentenced to seven years transportation.
Halloran immigrated to Australia in 1819 and there helped establish a private school that eventually became known as Sydney Grammar School. In 1822 Halloran went back to his second family by, it was rumoured, his own niece. He spent the next few years running from libel suits over his defamatory writing. Eventually he became head of the Sydney Free Public Grammar School but his troubles were far from over, his own son who was working at the school, was investigated for ‘unseemly behaviour’. Halloran carried on being chased by libel suits, he married a second time, had several more children and eventually died in 1831.
The boy who received the coveted medal had an equally notorious father. Mr Tawell Snr was sacked from his job as a Quaker Linen-Draper for the seduction of a young housemaid who subsequently fell pregnant. He turned to forgery and was transported to Australia from the UK. He made his fortunes in the pharmaceutical business and encouraged his family to join him, which is when young John Tawell arrived in Sydney. However the good life did not last long and Mr Tawell Snr was arrested after poisoning one of his mistresses and was later hanged at Aylesbury in 1845. He was the first man to be caught by newly installed telegraph wires which allowed police to communicate with each other his whereabouts.
Tragically, the young John Tawell died at the age of 27 following a lung complaint. He had studied medicine in England and had hoped to build upon his father’s business in Australia.ÂÂ
Therefore, given the curious and fantastical history of the medal, interest in its auction is expected to be high. Along with the medal will be a collection of other medals that all have connections to notorious Australians, so if you don’t manage to bag this one, there will be others with equally compelling tales. The Morton & Eden auction will be held at Sotheby’s in London on December 2nd.
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