Obverse: Head of Queen Victoria with a diadem, hair tied in a knot (left). Legend: 'VICTORIA REGINA'. Reverse: Within a knotted rope starboard broadside view of a ship of the line at anchor. Legend: 'FOR LONG SERVICE AND GOOD CONDUCT'. Inscription on edge: 'E.J. FAYRER, SH. STEWD, H.M.S.SURPRISE'. Mounted on a bar with four other medals. Suspended from a bar and dark blue ribbon edged with white.

Edward James Fayrer (1864-1929) was born in Totnes, Devon, the son of Edward Fayrer, a ship's corporal. The family moved to Portsmouth, Hampshire. He attended Greenwich Hospital School and entered the Royal Navy as a boy seaman on 29 July 1879. As an assistant steward, he served in HMS 'Sultan' during the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882, during which action two of her crew were killed and eight wounded. He was appointed ship's steward in 1899 and in HMS 'Orlando' was stationed in the Far East during the Boxer Rebellion. Some of her crew served in the naval brigades attemping to relieve the British Legation in Peking. He was pensioned in 1902 and worked as a store keeper's assistant at the Royal Hospital School, Greenwich but was recalled during World War I. He served as a ship's steward at the shore bases HMS 'President' I and the Royal Naval College Greenwich. Fayrer was a freemason, initiated in 1896 at the Lord Charles Beresford Lodge at Chatham.
He married Kate Taylor in 1896 and the couple had two children - Edward and May. Fayrer died in Portsmouth.