Awarded to John Henry Morris RN (1858-1945). Obverse: A nude boy with short cloak flying out from his shoulder, blowing on a torch held in his right hand. Legend: 'LATEAT SCINTILLVLA FORSAN'. Exergue: 'SOC . LOND . IN . RESVSCITAT . INTERMORTVORVM INSTIT . MDCCLXXIV'. Reverse: Within an oak wreath tied with ribbon, name of recipient and inscription. Legend: 'HOC PRETIVM CIVE SERVATO TVLIT'. Inscription: 'VIT . OB SERV . D . D . SOC . REG . HVM.' [5 straight lines]. Inscription on edge: 'JHN MORISS. 13TH JANY. 1895'. Suspended by a cusped bar from a dark blue ribbon.

On 13 January 1895, the barque 'Northern Belle', bound from St Valerie to Ipswich with a cargo of phosphates, rang aground off Sandgate, Kent, in bad weather. The local coastguard, using rocket apparatus, put an initial thin line onboard but the crew of 'Northern Belle' were not able to complete the proceedure by using this line to get a block with an endless rope or 'whip' attached to it, onboard and secured. John Morris volunteered to swim to the stranded vessel, partly using the line already in place. He sorted out the ropes communicating with the shore and landed three crew members and himself by breeches buoy.

John Henry Morris was born in Liverpool in 1858. He entered the Royal Navy in 1876 and after a career spent largely in home waters he moved to the coastguard in 1890. He served initially as a boatman at Sandgate, Kent until 1893, then at various stations in the New Forest area, gaining the rank of Chief Petty Officer in 1911. He seems to have retired shortly afterwards. He married twice and had two children by his first wife Sarah. He remarried Elizabeth in 1897. Morris died in Portsmouth in 1945.