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The fine K.C.B., Army of India, Baltic and Crimea group of seven awarded to Admiral C. H. M. Buckle, Royal Navy The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, K.C.B. (Military) Knight Commander’s set of insignia, comprising neck badge, 18 carat gold and enamels, hallmarked London 1873, and breast star by Garrard & Co., silver with gold and enamel centre, fitted with gold retaining pin; Army of India 1799-1826, 1 clasp, Ava (C. H. M. Buckle, Mid.) short hyphen reverse, officially impressed naming; Crimea 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol (Capt. C. H. M. Buckle, H.M.S. Valorous.) contemporary engraved naming; Baltic 1854-55 (Capt. C. H. M. Buckle, H.M.S. Valorous.) contemporary engraved naming; Ottoman Empire, Order of the Medjidie, 4th Class breast badge, silver, gold and enamel; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue, unnamed, mounted on a contemporary bar as worn, fitted with gold pin, generally good very fine or better (7) £8,000-£10,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Morton & Eden, December 2003. C.B. (Military) London Gazette 10 July 1855 K.C.B. (Military) London Gazette 29 May 1875. Claude Henry Mason Buckle was the second son of Admiral Mathew Buckle. He entered Portsmouth Naval College in 1817 and first went to sea as a volunteer aboard H.M.S. Heron in 1819. During the Burmese War he served on H.M.S. Liffey at the capture of Rangoon in 1824 and in other naval encounters, hence the Ava clasp on his Army of India medal. Subsequently he served in various ships on the South American and West Indian stations and was Flag-Lieutenant in the San Josef under Sir William Hargood. In 1840-1 he studied the theory and construction of the marine steam engine at Robert Napier's Vulcan Foundry in Glasgow and was subsequently given command of H.M.S. Growler, a new steam sloop. On the Growler he served on the African station in the suppression of the slave trade. His account (to Commander William Jones, Senior Officer, H.M.S. Penelope) of an encounter between the Growler's pinnace, under Lieutenant John Lodwick, and a Spanish slave ship off Shebar in 1845, in which two men were killed, includes the following commendation: "I trust that the successful exertions of a handful of brave men in preventing several hundred slaves from being carried off will meet with your approval and I earnestly hope will also induce you to recommend Lieut. Lodwick to the favourable notice and considerations of My Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty". The Buckle Papers include a letter from Admiral J. Bullen (dated 1st February 1850) to Buckle's father, commenting: "I beg that you will receive my sincerest congratulations on the late noble brave and spirited conduct of your son against the Pirates on the Coast of Africa .....". In 1852 he was appointed Captain of the paddle steamer Valorous and on the outbreak of war with Russia proceeded to the Baltic. He was present at the first bombardment of Bomarsund in the Aland Islands when Valorous maintained fire for almost seven hours, taking part in the second attack and eventual capitulation of the town. He subsequently distinguished himself in the Black Sea. O’Byrne records that he ‘chased the Russian steamer "Vladimir" under the forts of Sebastopol, receiving their fire; assisted in defeating the Russian land attack on Eupatoria, and in the night attacks on the Quarantine Fort, Sebastopol; "Valorous" bore the flag of Rear-Admiral Sir Houston Stewart at the attack and surrender of Kinburn (Crimean and Turkish Medals, 4th class of the Medjidjie); C.B. and K.C.B.; was gazetted on three occasions’. He was Captain Superintendent at Deptford Dockyard, 1857-63, subsequently promoted to Rear-Admiral on 14 November 1863 and placed on the retirement list on 24 March 1866. He was appointed Vice-Admiral on the retired list on 1 April 1870 and Admiral on 22 January 1877. See Lot 324 for the recipient’s miniature medals.

The scarce Great War D.S.C. group of five awarded to Acting Flight Commander C. C. ‘Jumbo’ Carlisle, Royal Naval Air Service, late Merchant Navy, one of the more unusual characters of ‘The Spider Web’ Sea-plane Flight at Felixstowe Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R., the reverse hallmarked London 1917; 1914-15 Star (Flt. S. Lt. C. C. Carlisle, R.N.A.S.); British War and Victory Medals (Flt. Cr. C. C. Carlisle. R.N.A.S.); Denmark, Medal for Heroic Deeds, silver, mounted as worn, good very fine (5) £1,400-£1,800 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Butterfield’s Auction, U.S.A., June 2000. D.S.C. London Gazette 1 May 1918: ‘For zeal and devotion to duty between 1 July and 31 December 1917.’ The original recommendation states: ‘This officer has served on this station [R.N.A.S. Felixstowe] since August 1915 and has been consistent in carrying out his varied duties in a thorough and capable manner. I consider his influence on this station to have been highly valuable to the Service and most deserving of recognition.’ Cyril Campbell Carlisle was born in Liverpool on 14 March 1880, and originally served in the Merchant Navy, having been apprenticed to Nicholson & McGill in February 1896. He was awarded the Norwegian Medal for Heroic Deeds in respect of the rescue of the crew of the barque Varuna in 1902 and he gained his 1st Mate’s Certificate in the following year. His subsequent Master’s Certificate was obtained at Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in August 1906, but on joining the Royal Naval Air Service in May 1915, he listed his current employment as that of a manager of a petroleum company in West Africa. Having undertaken pilot training at R.N.A.S. Chingford - seemingly without success, one report stating ‘he will never improve as a pilot’ - Carlisle was posted to R.N.A.S. Felixstowe for duty as ‘senior watch keeper and motor boats’ in January 1916. Subsequently described as ‘an exceptional officer with great ability to command,’ he was advanced to Flight Lieutenant in October 1916 and given charge of ‘seaplane lighters and motor boats.’ And apart from his detachment to Houton Bay ‘in connection with the America Seaplane’ in April 1917, he appears to have remained likewise employed until the war’s end. Having been advanced to Acting Flight Commander in March 1918, he transferred to the Royal Air Force in the rank of Captain and served in 70 Wing and in France. Carlisle emigrated to Canada in the 1920s but died back in the U.K. at Brighton, Sussex, in July 1969. A much liked and unusual character, some of Cyril Carlisle’s antics are recounted in The Spider Web, The Romance of a Flying-Boat War Flight, by ‘P.I.X.’, published in 1919, an amusing account of R.N.A.S. Felixstowe during the war, but, as the following extracts might illustrate, ‘Jumbo’ had an important part to play: ‘C. C. Carlisle, the Old Man of the Sea, or Jumbo, as he was called, because of his appearance and methods on the football field, was an institution on the station. He was in charge of the working party which did all the pulley-hauley work, and of the piratical crews of the motor-boats who looked after the flying- boats when they were on the water of the harbour. He had all sorts of fascinating model sheerlegs and derricks for training his men, and on occasion headed the salvage crew or the wrecking gang. He was a merchant service officer who had spent thirteen years at sea, part of the time fetching oil from Patagonia, and it was rumoured that he had also fetched from that salubrious spot his picturesque language. Some weekend trippers to Felixstowe, standing outside the barbed wire enclosing the beach, after watching and hearing, with eyes popping out and ears flapping, the unconscious Jumbo handling a working party bringing In the Porte Baby, wrote an anonymous letter to the Commanding Officer complaining of the earache, and adding, “it was Sunday too." This effusion was signed " A Disgusted Visitor." It was quite evident that the writer had never been with our armies in Flanders.’ ‘The new year [1918] opened badly. On the 2nd, in a thirty-knot wind, Gordon took off the harbour in a new type boat. As he rose from the water a petrol pipe failed, and not having height to turn he landed her outside down wind. She touched the water at a rate of knots, her bottom split open, and she sank in shallow water. Before she sank Gordon and his crew were taken off by a motor-boat. The Old Man of the Sea organised a salvage party. Jumbo boiled about in the sheds setting alight his trusty henchmen, and collected an amazing assortment of wire cables, ropes, balks of timber, flares, anchors, and what else I know not. The station tug Grampus, the steam hissing from her safety-valve through the zeal of her fireman (for the usual unexciting job of the crew was to bring bread and beef from Shotley, and this was an adventure), took the O.M.O.T.S.'s pet, the flat- bottomed salvage barge, in tow. They took it out and anchored it to windward of the wreck, but nothing further could be done until low water, which was at nine o'clock. In the darkness of the night, in the shadow of the sheds, Jumbo collected his piratical crew and packed them into the Grampus. I asked to be taken along, and we all shoved out through the guardships into the open sea. We could not get near the barge owing to the shallow water, and Jumbo forsook us, climbing with five of his satellites into a small dinghy, which, perilously overloaded, bobbed away over the heavy sea into the darkness. A long wait. The tug was rolling and tossing in the steep waves. A drizzling rain was falling. There were no shore lights, and the night was pitch-black. And then there was a glare of light in the distance, Jumbo had lit one of the acetylene flares on the stern of the salvage barge. The glare increased, and presently a light came bobbing over the water towards the tug, - it was a lantern in the bow of the dinghy. I climbed across and was ferried to the scene of activity. It was a weird sight. Five hissing acetylene flares surrounded the wreck with a fierce glow. Intense darkness all around, and in the brilliant pool of light a section of tossing waves, the flying-boat with her lower wings showing on the surface of the water, and the oilskin-clad men working on her. The wind was dying down, and as the tide fell the force of the waves was broken by the shoals over which they had already passed and by the barge. Jumbo took a short wire rope, with a wire hawser attached midway between the two ends, and had it worked down from the bow beneath the flying-boat. The ends were made fast to the engine bearer-struts, the men tying the knots under water, as the tide was now rising. Other men had made and fitted a wire sling for each engine, and to these two lines were made fast and taken to the barge. The slack in the wire hawser and the two lines was hauled in, and as the incoming tide raised the barge the flying-boat was lifted clear of the bottom. As soon as the water was deep enough Jumbo had the anchor heaved up and two motor-boats took the barge in tow. The flying-boat, supported on the surface by its lower wings moving through the water, followed after. It was towed by the two lines attached to the engines, the wire bridle under the bow preventing it nose-diving. The Old Man of the Sea processioned into the harbour in triumph. First the Grampus, then the two motor-boats, then the barge, and finally the flying-boat....

The rare Abu Klea group of three awarded to George Holden Woodman, Engine Room Artificer in the Safieh during her epic rescue in February 1885 of Sir Charles Wilson’s ill-fated party on its attempt to reach Khartoum, in the course of which he was severely scalded when the Safieh’s boiler took a direct hit Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, undated reverse, 2 clasps, The Nile 1884-85, Abu Klea (G. Woodman, E.R.A.) impressed naming, engraved correction to initial; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., V.R., narrow suspension (G. Woodman, Eng. Rm. Artifr., H.M.S. President) impressed naming, engraved correction to initial; Khedive’s Star, dated 1884-6, light pitting from star, otherwise very fine (3) £2,600-£3,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- With small detachments from the naval brigade and with 20 marksmen from the mounted infantry, Charles Beresford began his advance up the river on the steamer Safieh, to rescue Sir Charles Wilson’s party. His armament consisted of two Gardner machine guns and two 4-pounder brass mountain guns. The engine-room staff consisted of Chief Engineer Benbow, two engine-room artifisers, Royal Navy, J. T. Garland and G. Woodman, and one chief stoker, Royal Navy, an Arab engineer and six Soudanese stokers. The Safieh could steam at the rate of some 2.5 knots only; so, even if navigation had been unimpeded, progress would have been extremely slow. Early on 3 February the Safieh sighted the 3-gun Dervish fort at Wad Habeshni, which put a shot into the steamer’s boiler. Between 1900 hours and 2000 hours the Gardner silenced the only Dervish gun that could bring fire upon the steamer after she had anchored on the bank opposite the fort, some 450 metres distant from it. Undoubtedly, this silencing of the fort’s guns saved the steamer from destruction. Wilson’s party slipped past the fort in the darkness, the sick and wounded being transported in a nuggar (which, although fired on, suffered little damage) and the remainder marching along the opposite bank. The enemy were deceived into believing that both the Safieh and the nugger had been abandoned; the result being that the enemy fire ceased for the night. The damaged boiler had cooled by 1100 hours. Chief Engineer Henry Benbow went to work on it as soon as it could be touched, and, after ten hours of unremitting labour, he succeeded in repairing it. “Too much credit,” said Beresford, “cannot be given to this officer, as he had to shape the plate, bore the holes in plate and boiler, and run down the screws and nuts, almost entirely with his own hands, the artificers and everyone in the stokehold having been scalded severely by the explosion when the shot entered the boilers.” Beresford later stated that he would have recommended Benbow for the Victoria Cross but was under the impression that the latter’s service was not of the type that would have qualified for the award. Benbow was later promoted to be Inspector of Machinery. At 0500 hours on 4 February the fires of the boiler were re-lit; every precaution having been taken, however, to raise steam as quietly and unobtrusively as possible. At 0550 hours, when day was about to break and all was ready, the Dervishes realized that the Safieh had not been deserted and brought the guns to bear upon the steamer; but, before they could open fire, Beresford weighed anchor and proceeded up the river, as if steaming for Khartum. He only travelled for some half a kilometre until, finding a place in which he could turn in safety, put about and steamed past the fort at the highest speed possible, using his rifles and machine guns with maximum effect. Below the fort he found the nuggar aground, with the sick and wounded still in her and within range of the Dervish guns. At length both steamer and nuggar were able to move down to the area where Wilson, with his party, were awaiting them. All were taken on board, and at 1745 hours the camp at Gubat - the main base of the relief force at this time - was reached. This episode of the rescue of Wilson’s relief force involved a decisive psychological victory against the Mahdi’s forces at a critical juncture in the fortunes of the desert column. It should be borne in mind that the capture of Khartum had cemented the Mahdi’s control over the entire region. In point of fact, he had despatched an army of some 30,000 men against Gubat. However, the rescue of Wilson’s ill-starred expedition restored British prestige in the eyes of the Dervishes to such an extent that the commander of the latter restrained his forces until the British had quit the neighbourhood of the river. The fact that the extremely vulnerable force at Gubat was not attacked is an indication of the extent of Beresford’s psychological victory. George Holden Woodman was born at Horley, Surrey, on 2 April 1853, and joined the Royal Navy on 1 April 1878, aged 25, a fitter by trade. Rated Acting Engine Room Artificer he joined H.M.S. Pembroke, the newly commissioned Royal Navy Supply School at Chatham. Brief service aboard Monarch and Devastation was followed by his appointment to the Falcon in July 1878, in which ship he was confirmed as E.R.A. in August 1879. He moved to Royal Adelaide in October 1881 and the following month returned to Pembroke. Thereafter he served ashore at Duncan, Pembroke, Vernon and Pembroke again until joining Monarch in September 1884 and his attachment to the Nile Flotilla from October 1884 to April 1885. He received his L.S. & G.C. medal in May 1886, and promotion to E.R.A. 1st Class on 1 April 1888, and to Chief E.R.A. 2nd Class later in the same month. He was advanced to Chief E.R.A. 1st Class in April 1894, and ended his days at President (R.N. College) from May 1896 to 30 April 1900, when he was shore pensioned. Sold with copied record of service and medal roll confirmation, together with an original edition of Nash’s Magazine for May 1914, with Admiral Beresford’s own account of the Safieh’s adventures in ‘Running the Gauntlet’ which mentions Woodman’s presence on board.

The fine Great War submariner’s D.S.M. group of five awarded to Chief Engine Room Artificer 2nd class R. E. Jupp, Royal Navy; decorated for his prominent part in the E. 11’s famous patrol in the Sea of Marmora in May 1915, he was nonetheless reduced from Chief E.R.A. to C.E.R.A. 2 by Nasmith, V.C., for swearing at his No. 1, Lieutenant D’Oyly-Hughes - in normal circumstances Jupp’s punishment might have been far greater, but Nasmith was acutely aware of his value to the E. 11’s operational future Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (272396. R. E. Jupp, E.R.A. 2 Cl. H.M. Submarine E.11.); 1914-15 Star (272396, R. E. Jupp. D.S.M. E.R.A. 2. R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (272396 R. E. Jupp. C.E.R.A. 2 R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 2nd issue, fixed suspension (272396 R. E. Jupp. C.E.R.A. 2, H.M.S. Lucia), mounted as worn, contact marks and edge bruising, otherwise generally very fine (5) £4,000-£5,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, June 2006. D.S.M. London Gazette 13 September 1915: ‘For service in submarines in the Sea of Marmora.’ The recommendation states: ‘H.M. Submarine Ell Sea of Marmora 18 May to 7 June 1915. Passed through the Dardanelles on night of 18 May. On 23 May sank Ottoman gunboat Peleng-I Derya and on 24 May sank Naval Auxiliary Naga and S.S. Hunkar Iskelesi. On 25 May the transport ship Stamboul was torpedoed. On 28 May S.S. Bandirma was sunk and on 31 May the troop transport S.S. Madeline Rickmers torpedoed. The S.S. Tecielli was sunk on 2 June and finally on 7 June while passing out through the Dardanelles sank troopship S.S. Ceyhan. In total eleven ships were sunk or disabled during the mission.’ Reginald Jupp was born at Horsham, Sussex in October 1884 and entered the Royal Navy as an Acting Engine Room Artificer 4th Class in July 1907. Transferring to the submarine branch in October 1912, he was serving as an Engine Room Artificer 2nd Class at the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914. Jupp was undoubtedly a forceful character, and one who played a vital role in the E. 11’s remarkable patrols in the Sea of Marmora, a contention which is amply supported by the definitive account of those exploits, namely Dardanelles Patrol, by Peter Shankland and Anthony Hunter, which was first published in 1965 - indeed the authors duly acknowledge Jupp’s valuable contribution to their eye-witness material. From the numerous references to him in the text, it is possible, too, to place Jupp aboard the E. 11 from the commencement of hostilities, so he had earlier shared in her gallant attempt to penetrate the Baltic in October 1914, an operation that was hindered by engine trouble and the regular attention of the enemy; nearly rammed by German patrol vessels on the 19th, she returned home on the following day after being spotted by an aircraft that directed a flotilla of destroyers in pursuit of her; and having survived that ordeal, E. 11 was again nearly rammed after delivering an unsuccessful torpedo strike in Heligoland Bight in December of the same year - her target was an enemy ship returning from the bombardment of Scarborough. As recounted in Dardanelles Patrol, Jupp told Nasmith “Bad luck, sir” when it was apparent the torpedoes had missed, the latter responding, “It’s just as well I missed. She was too close. We would have both gone up together. But I’ll tell you this, Jupp, I won’t smoke or drink till I’ve sunk an enemy warship.” Nor did he. Yet it was, of course, for her subsequent deeds in the Dardanelles campaign in 1915, that the E. 11 won undying fame in the annals of submarine warfare, and Reginald Jupp his D.S.M. The spring of 1915 found the E.11 attached to the Fleet in the Mediterranean and, with Lieutenant-Commander Martin Eric Nasmith in command, she proceeded to make history at a rapid rate. It was in the middle of May that she left for her perilous passage through the Dardanelles, and before she was through them she ran into her first encounter with the enemy. When the Narrows had been successfully negotiated, and the submarine rose to get fresh bearings, two battleships were seen to be lying a little further on. Such an opportunity was not to be let slip without an effort, and, necessarily keeping the periscope above water, Lieutenant-Commander Nasmith at once proceeded to put his boat in a suitable position for launching a torpedo. Unfortunately, the Turks sighted the periscope a minute or two too soon, and instantly the battleships began blazing away with their light guns as hard as they could. At the same time they ‘upped anchor’ and got under way, so there was nothing for it but for the E.11 to dive and hide herself until the furore had subsided. She was far too slow to catch the battleships if she ran submerged, and if she rose to the surface she would almost certainly have been breached by a shell. After a little, therefore, she gently settled herself on the bottom of the Straits, and there she remained until dusk. That same evening she pushed on into the Sea of Marmora, where for several days she alternately rested and cruised about without finding anything that was worth the expenditure of a torpedo. Lieutenant-Commander Nasmith made Constantinople the centre of his operations during the whole of this raid, and his first reward came one Sunday morning, just before half-past six, when a big gunboat was seen cruising off the port. The submarine was ready for instant action, and in less than a minute the fatal torpedo was underway. At 6.25 the gunboat was hit; at 6.30 she had sunk, but not without giving the E.11 something of a shock. While she was heeling well over to the water's edge, a shot was fired that went clean through the submarine's periscope, carrying away about four inches of the diameter a few feet from the base, and leaving the rest standing. Had the shot struck about six feet lower, it would very probably have made a breach in the conning tower, and so rendered the submarine helpless, as she would not have been able to dive. The very next day brought an adventure which, if it was not so exciting, at any rate did not lack in interest. A big steamer was sighted making her way from Constantinople towards the Dardanelles, and the E.11 came to the surface a short distance ahead, fired a shot across her bows, and brought her to a standstill. There happened to be a facetious American newspaper correspondent on board, and when Lieutenant-Commander Nasmith hailed “Who are you?” - meaning, of course, to inquire what the ship was and what was her business - this gentleman replied by giving his own name and that of the paper for which he was working. This was not good enough for the E.11. A few more questions elicited the fact that the ship was a Turkish transport, the Nagara, and when he got as far as that, Nasmith promptly replied, “Right. I am going to sink you”. “May we have time to get off?” queried the newspaper man, by this time rather subdued. “Yes”, came the answer from the submarine, “but be d..... quick about it.” The Turks were so quick that they upset two of their boats in lowering them, and capsized several men into the water, though all of them managed to get into safety again. Then Nasmith went on board the ship to see what she carried. There was a six-inch gun, destined to strengthen the forts on the Dardanelles; there were several sets of mountings for weapons of large calibre; and there was a great quantity of ammunition for heavy guns on its way to the Dardanelles. The ship was, in fact, loaded from keel...

The Great War group of three awarded to Petty Officer G. Baxter, Royal Navy, attached Armoured Trains 1914 Star, with clasp (206500 G. Baxter, P.O. Armd. Trains.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (206500 G. Baxter. P.O. R.N.) the last with very faintly impressed naming, good very fine (3) £400-£500 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Spink, April 1999. M.I.D. London Gazette 17 April 1918. 77 1914 Stars issued for service with Armoured Trains. George Baxter was born in Bristol, Gloucestershire on 4 March 1883, and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in September 1899. Having then witnessed extensive seagoing experience in the interim, he was discharged as a Petty Officer ‘time expired’ in March 1913. Recalled in September 1914, Baxter was quickly re-employed in land operations in armoured trains and posted to H.M.A.T. Churchill. Three heavy armoured trains were built in Antwerp in September-October 1914, mounted with British naval guns, and placed under the overall command of Commander A. S. Littlejohns, R.N., with Lieutenant-Commander P. H. Riddler, R.N., as his second-in-command. Known from 9 November as H.M. Armoured Trains Jellicoe (Commander Littlejohns) with three 4.7-inch guns, H.M.A.T. Déguise (Belgian Captain Servais) with three 4.7-inch guns, and H.M.A.T. Churchill (Lieutenant-Commander Riddler) with two 6-inch guns, these three armoured trains fought around Antwerp until 7 October, then retreated via Ghent, in support of General Rawlinson’s advance to Ypres. H.M.A.T. Churchill became operational at Oostende after the retreat from Antwerp and in December went into action in the area around Oostkerke against German batteries to the south of Dixmude. From the end of December 1914 to March 1915, the three trains were continuously in action, sometimes in support of an assault (Jellicoe at la Bassée on 10 January), but in particular in counter-battery or bombardment missions in action to neutralise trench lines. Hence Jellicoe in action at Beuvry 20-24 January, Churchill at Oosterkerke on 28-29 January, and against an observation post at Ennetieres on 11 February, Déguise at Beuvry firing on a rail junction on the 15th, among other targets, and Churchill against a battery at Fleur d’Ecosse on 3 March. The guns of the trains were extremely effective, notably against troop concentrations. On 18 February, H.M.A.T. Déguise fired seven shells at German troops to the South-West of La Bassée. These actions brought the trains within range of the German artillery. The Germans scored hits, but the armour protection and swift manoeuvring of the trains normally protected the crews, except on 25 January when Jellicoe was hit, wounding two men and killing the Belgian engine driver. Between 10 and 13 March, the three trains supported the action at Neuve Chapelle. On that occasion, Field Marshal Sir John French paid a surprise visit to H.M.A.T. Churchill, which was the command train for Commander Littlejohns. Towards the end of March 1915, the three trains were withdrawn from service. Baxter’s subsequent appointments included the minesweeping sloop Alyssum from December 1915 to February 1916, the Queenstown depot Colleen and the Grimsby base Pekin, and he was demobilised in March 1919.

The Great War Jutland D.S.O. group of seven awarded to Rear-Admiral M. G. B. Legge, Royal Navy, who was decorated for his gallant command of the destroyer Nerissa, in which ship, as part of 2nd Division, 13th Destroyer Flotilla, he fought in close proximity to Barry Bingham, V.C. Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamels, with integral top ribbon bar; 1914-15 Star (Lt. Commr. M. G. B. Legge, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Commr. M. G. B. Legge. R.N.); Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Jubilee 1935, mounted court-style as worn, good very fine and better (7) £6,000-£8,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards formed by R. C. Witte, Dix Noonan Webb, December 2007. D.S.O. London Gazette 15 September 1916: ‘Having defeated the enemy destroyers, he gallantly pressed home an attack with torpedoes on the enemy battle cruisers.’ Montgomery George Bentinck Legge was born in Paddington, London on 16 December 1883, a scion of the Dartmouth family, and entered the Royal Navy as a Cadet in Britannia in May 1898. Appointed Midshipman while serving in the battleship Canopus in the Mediterranean in January 1900, he was advanced to Lieutenant in September 1905 and to Lieutenant-Commander in September 1913, and was in command of the destroyer Forester at the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914. As such, he was quickly in action at Heligoland Bight on the 28th, when his ship shared in the destruction of the enemy destroyer V-187, and again at Dogger Bank in January 1915. Removing to the destroyer Nerissa in April 1916, he was subsequently present at Jutland in the 2nd Division, 13th Destroyer Flotilla: ‘4.30: 13th Flotilla ordered to attack the enemy’s battle-cruisers with torpedoes. Took station astern of the 3rd Division of 13th Flotilla and commenced my attack on a northerly course, owing to the enemy turning 16 points. This attack had eventually to be carried out on a southerly course, which I did in company with the Termagant, firing two torpedoes at a range of 7,000 yards. Just previous to this Nomad was observed quite close, stopped and apparently badly damaged in the engine-room. The enemy’s light-cruisers were firing accurate salvoes during the attack, and this fire was returned, and though spotting was very difficult, one torpedo apparently took effect on the rear ship. I rejoined Champion on the disengaged side of the battle-cruisers, steering to the northward and joined the Grand Fleet, remaining in company with the Champion for the remainder of the action’ (Legge’s official report, refers). He was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 16 July 1916), and awarded the D.S.O., and remained in command of the Nerissa until removing to the Vesper in January 1918, again having been in action in the Heligoland Bight on 16-17 November 1917. Following service in the Black Sea in Vesper 1919-20, Legge was appointed, in November 1922, on joining the Widgeon in the Far East, Senior Naval Officer, Upper Yangtse. He remained similarly employed until 1924, a period that witnessed a run-in with local junkmen over the transport of wood-oil down river, and the murder of the manager of the British Trading Company at Wanhsien, but the threat of imminent bombardment appears to have quelled the disturbance. Indeed, Legge was cited as having ‘acted with firmness, good judgment and ability’, and to have ‘enhanced the reputation of the Royal Navy on many occasions of trouble’ (his service record. refers). From May 1927 to December 1928, and having been advanced to Captain (D.), he commanded the flotilla leader Stuart and, after lending valuable assistance in the aftermath of the Corinth earthquake, was awarded the Greek Red Cross Society’s Commemorative Medal - a distinction that Their Lordships permitted him to accept, but not wear. Legge next returned to the Far East, where he served as Naval Attaché to His Majesty’s Mission in Japan and China from December 1929 to January 1933, prior to returning home for his final seagoing command, the battleship Centurion. Appointed an A.D.C. to the King in July 1936, he was placed on the Retired List in the rank of Rear-Admiral in the same month. Recalled on the renewal of hostilities, Legge was appointed Roof Lookout Control Officer for the Air Ministry in the Westminster-Kingsway sector but would appear to have been released before the War’s end due to ill-health. He died in February 1951.

The rare Arctic convoy PQ-17 B.E.M and Soviet Red Star group of five awarded to Chief Steward R. Quick, Merchant Navy, who survived the loss of the Empire Byron in PQ-17 in July 1942, and an inquisitive U-boat officer who suspected he was the ship’s Master British Empire Medal, (Civil), G.VI.R., 1st issue (Robert Quick); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939 -45; U.S.S.R., Order of the Red Star, the reverse officially numbered, ‘70811’, mounted for display, extremely fine (5) £1,200-£1,600 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Spink, November 2000. Approximately 20 Soviet Red Stars were awarded to Allied personnel for the 1939-45 War, six of them to members of the Merchant Navy. B.E.M. London Gazette 1 January 1943. The original recommendation states: ‘Chief Officer Prance and Steward Robert Quick were shipmates in a vessel which made three voyages to Russia in the Empire Byron. On her last voyage she was subjected to constant air and sea attack. Despite his previous experiences on the North Russian route, Steward Quick re-engaged in this vessel for a further voyage and faced unflinchingly all dangers and hazards.’ Soviet Red Star London Gazette 17 November 1942: ‘In recognition of gallantry in the convoying of ships to northern ports of the Soviet Union.’ Robert Quick was born in St. Ives, Cornwall on 4 May 1881, and was thus aged 61 when he signed on for his voyage in the S.S. Empire Byron on the Arctic run. Unfortunately for him, it was in the ill-fated Arctic convoy PQ-17. Carrying 3,500 tons of military stores, the Empire Byron sailed with the convoy from Reykjavik on 27 June 1942 and, following receipt of the notorious signal for the convoy to ‘scatter’ on 4 July, altered course by 20 degrees to veer away from the main body. At 0827 hours on the 5th, Kapitänleutnant Bielfeld of the U-703 put a torpedo into the Empire Byron’s main engine room, causing a between decks explosion which trapped a dozen Gunners below. The crew abandoned the sinking ship and under the orders of Captain Wharton concentrated in two boats, one of which had an engine. The officers discarded uniform insignia indicating their rank as the Germans would be sure to seek out the ship’s Master and no doubt take him prisoner aboard the U-Boat. Among those compelled to discard such insignia was John Rimington, a Captain in the R.E.M.E., who was to have advised the Russians on their new Churchill tanks. He remained, however, resplendent in a pure white duffel coat. Meanwhile, Empire Byron’s boiler exploded, tearing a gaping hole in the hull. Water then cascaded in and the ship sank with the loss of 18 gunners and ratings. Bielfeld now gave orders for U-703 to surface and closed on the two lifeboats. According to David Irving’s The Destruction of Convoy P.Q. 17, ‘A tall blond officer,’ accompanied by a German seaman in ‘polished leggings toting a machine-gun,’ then descended on to the U-boat’s deck, and began berating the British seamen who were struggling with unfamiliar oars. As they neared the submarine, the German Officer asked, “Why are you Fighting? You aren’t Communists are you? So why do you risk your lives to take tanks to the Bolsheviks? Who is your Captain?” Nobody stirred or answered, and, as related in the same book, the blond ‘German’s eyes fell on the rather distinguished-looking Chief Steward [Quick], but he hastily said he was not the Captain; finally, the officer saw Captain Rimington, and told him to step on to the submarine’s deck; the army captain’s protests went unheeded, and he was taken down below. At the same time, the lifeboats were handed tins of biscuits and apple-juice, and a piece of sausage. “How far is the nearest land?” asked Captain Wharton. “About 250 miles,” answered the blond officer. A klaxon sounded within the submarine, and she submerged, taking the captured Briton with them.’ Thus, cast adrift, 61-year-old Quick subsequently endured the following ordeal, as detailed by Captain Wharton in his official report: ‘We rowed to the S.E. throughout the afternoon of the 6th until the men became exhausted and then at about 1900 hours we took the other lifeboat in tow and started the motor, steered S.E. and making about four knots. A little before 1900 we saw a submarine on the surface astern signalling to a single aircraft which was circling overhead, but neither of them took any notice of us. Our compass was of little use to us, but we had the sun throughout the 24 hours and were able to steer by it and make a good course. We sighted one German plane on the 7th and also a steamer which was on fire and abandoned, but sighted nothing further until 10th when we sighted the corvette Dianella steaming towards us. Her crow’s nest look-out had sighted our red sails, and we were picked up about 1320 on 10th in position 73.48 N. 41.21 E., having been in the boats for five and a half days, and covering 250 miles towards the land. We remained on board the Daniella and landed at Archangel on 16 July.’ Sold with three original Soviet Red Star membership booklets, one of them with a portrait photograph, the other two with annual coupons dated 1942-46 [for annuity?], together with damaged card box of issue for B.E.M.

The Second War bomb disposal operations D.S.C. and George Medal group of six awarded to Lieutenant-Commander D. Law, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve: having diffused around 40 UXBs in the period 1940-42, he went on to carry out equally gallant work at Calais and Zeebrugge in October 1944, carrying out an examination of the lock-gates for booby-traps at the latter place when enemy troops were positioned just 40 yards away Distinguished Service Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse hallmarked London 1942, officially dated ‘1945’ and privately engraved ‘Lt. Cdr. David Law, R.N.V.R.’ George Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue (Lieut. David Law, R.N.V.R.); 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals, mounted court-style for display, good very fine and better (6) £6,000-£8,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, September 2006. G.M. London Gazette 28 April 1942: ‘For gallantry and undaunted devotion to duty.’ The original recommendation states: ‘This officer has dealt with 39 bombs, one of which was embedded in six feet of concrete with only the filler-cap showing. The bomb could not be withdrawn owing to the lack of purchase. Also the existence, close by, of important installations, made it impossible to destroy it on the spot. It was essential to remove it as soon as possible, the safety period therefore having to be ignored. Everyone was sent away while Lieutenant Law gently chipped a hole in the concrete with the least possible vibration and scraped out the sand underneath with his hand until he found the fuse. This he discharged, but then had to remove it by hand as it was not possible to rig up remote control apparatus. He tested it roughly for spring in case a Zus. 40 booby-trap was present and then removed the fuse. Afterwards the hole was made long enough to take out the bomb. A bomb had fallen into the bunker of a ship. A channel was cut through the coal to the spot where it was assumed that the bomb lay. This was between 8-12 feet down and 16 feet in. The tail of the bomb was found and gradually the fuses were exposed and discharged. The bomb was hoisted out. The flooded engine room could then be pumped out and a second bomb was found with the fuse downwards. Lieutenant Law, by careful use of wedges and a crowbar, turned the bomb until he could get at the fuses and discharge them.’ D.S.C. London Gazette 16 January 1945: ‘For gallantry and devotion to duty in operations leading to the capture of Calais and Zeebrugge.’ The original recommendation states: Lieutenant-Commander Law was one of two Bomb Safety Officers attached to the Port Reconnaissance Party which entered Calais on 1st October. Information was received from Prisoners of War that the enemy had p[laced demolition charges in the Main Control Bunker (concrete shelter) and it was found that the bunker was on fire inside. Lieut.-Comdr. Law, with his assistant Sub-Lieut. Swain, entered the bunker, wearing oxygen breathing apparatus and succeeded in extinguishing the fire and neutralising seven 500-lb charges which were already hot. On 18th October, prior to the capture of Zeebrugge, this Officer, with the same companion, undertook to obtain information regarding the state of the lock-gates at this port. At the time, the German line was about 40-yards east of the lock-gates and the British line was 800-yards west of them. The two officers succeeded in making their way under cover of darkness to a suitable position where they waited until daylight and were able to make the necessary detailed observation of the lock and gates and to establish that any attempt to capture the position intact was pointless. Lieut.-Comdr. Law showed courage of a high order, initiative and devotion to duty.’ David Law, a native of Clydebank who graduated from Glasgow University prior to the War, was attached to the Director of Unexploded Bomb Department (D.U.B.D.) from as early as December 1940, so we may be sure that many of the 39 bombs referred to in his G.M. recommendation were very much of the “Blitz” period. But his gallant deeds in a ship’s bunker - those cited in the same recommendation - were actually enacted on the 2 October 1941, when he was called to the S.S. Sturdee Rose at Milford Haven, which merchantman had put in to port after being attacked by a brace of prowling He. 111s. He was duly awarded the G.M., which decoration he received at an investiture held on 30 June 1942. Law was serving in the Torpedo and Mining Department by the time of his subsequent acts of gallantry at Calais and Zeebrugge in October 1944, and was invested with his D.S.C. at Holyrood Palace on 27 September 1945, shortly before his release from the R.N.V.R. Sold with a quantity of original documentation and artefacts, including his commission warrant for the rank of Temporary Sub-Lieutenant, R.N.V.R., dated 15 January 1943, with seniority from 29 September 1940; a superb album of copied photographs taken from the recipient’s original archive (approximately 40 images), the whole detailing the events of a UXB incident in the Grimsby area, and fully captioned with explanatory notes; an unused “Unexploded Bomb Report” card and a copy of the Civil Defence training pamphlet Notes On The Detection and Reporting of Unexploded Missiles (H.M.S.O., 1943); Admiralty letter notifying him of the award of his D.S.C., dated 20 January 1945, with three others relating to investiture arrangements; and the artefacts including his R.N.V.R. uniform epaulettes and cap badge, cloth “UXB” sleeve badge, wooden R.N. B.D.S. (Royal Navy Bomb Disposal Section) wall-plaque and wartime White Ensign, the leading edge ink-inscribed, ‘D. Law, R.N., B.D.S.’

‘The Army A.A. Gunners, under Bombardier Labern, and Naval Gunners, under Gunlayer Pilling, assisted by the ship’s crew, kept up a marvellous, continuous and accurate barrage in the face of unceasing and direct attack on numerous occasions. Their courageous keenness kept the men untiringly at their posts, and on many occasions near misses drenched them with water, which swamped their guns, but never their ardour. The above mentioned Bombardier and Gunlayer were outstanding and set a wonderful example to their crews.’ Captain W. D. Mason, G.C., in his official report, following the miraculous arrival of the tanker Ohio at Grand Harbour, Valetta. The important Second War Operation ‘Pedestal’ D.S.M. group of seven awarded to Acting Bombardier R. H. H. Labern, Royal Artillery, 4th Maritime A.A. Regiment (R.A.), who commanded a Bofors section aboard the tanker Ohio Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (6202472 R. H. H. Labern. A/Bmbdr. R.A.) impressed naming; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, mounted as worn, nearly extremely fine (7) £8,000-£10,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, February 2015. Just 51 D.S.M.s were awarded to Gunners of the Royal Artillery for services in Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships in the 1939-45 War. D.S.M. London Gazette 8 December 1942: ‘For bravery while serving in Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships on passage to Malta.’ The original recommendation, for an immediate D.C.M., states: ‘During the recent passage of a convoy to Malta, Bombardier Labern was Detachment Commander of a Bofors Gun on the M.V. Ohio. During a submarine attack a torpedo struck the vessel and caused a fire to break out on deck. Bombardier Labern organised the men under his command into a firefighting party and in the face of great danger succeeded in extinguishing the fire. The ship was dive-bombed and attacked by E-Boats on numerous occasions. Throughout this N.C.O. stood by his gun and showed great personal courage.’ Out of 161 D.E.M.S. Gunners employed in Operation ‘Pedestal’ 28 were killed in action. Reginald Henry Holswatt Labern was ultimately awarded the D.S.M., an award approved by the Vice-Admiral Malta, no doubt on the back of the above quoted statement made by Captain W. D. Mason, G.C. He received his decoration at an investiture held in February 1944. The importance of Operation ‘Pedestal’ needs no introduction here, Winston Churchill himself requesting regular updates as to the convoy’s progress, but for the record’s sake it is worth registering the bare facts: of the 14 merchantmen that set out, nine were sunk and three damaged, while the Senior Service’s input of 59 escorts, the largest such force ever assembled in defence of a convoy, sustained losses of an aircraft carrier, a cruiser and a destroyer, as well as having another half a dozen ships damaged. But of all the participating vessels, it was the tanker Ohio that captured the headlines, her survival and vital cargo of fuel allowing Malta to continue her grim defence. In the final 60 hours of her epic voyage, prior to her triumphant entry into Valetta on 15 August 1942, she received no less than seven direct hits and 20 near-misses. Her Master, of course, was awarded the George Cross, the citation for which honour makes specific mention of his ship’s gunners: ‘During the passage to Malta of an important convoy Captain Mason’s ship suffered most violent onslaught. She was a focus of attack throughout and was torpedoed early one night. Although gravely damaged, her engines were kept going and the Master made a magnificent passage by handsteering and without a compass. The ship’s gunners helped to bring down one of the attacking aircraft. The vessel was hit again before morning, but though she did not sink, her engine room was wrecked. She was then towed. The unwieldy condition of the vessel and persistent enemy attacks made progress slow, and it was uncertain whether she would remain afloat. All next day progress somehow continued and the ship reached Malta after a further night at sea. The violence of the enemy could not deter the Master from his purpose. Throughout he showed skill and courage of the highest order and it was due to his determination that, in spite of the most persistent enemy opposition, the vessel, with her valuable cargo, eventually reached Malta and was safely berthed’ (London Gazette 8 September 1942 refers). The Ohio, an oil tanker built for the Texas Oil Company in 1940, first arrived in U.K. waters in June 1942, soon after which she was turned over to a British crew under the auspices of the British Eagle Oil and Shipping Company, for she was already earmarked for the Malta-run. Her new Master was Dudley Mason, in command of 77 men, no less than 24 of them R.N. and Army Gunners to man the tanker’s newly installed 5-inch A. A. gun aft and a 3-inch A.A. gun in the bows, in addition to an array of Oerlikon guns. Captain Mason having attended a special conference, Ohio departed the Clyde with her fellow ‘Pedestal’ merchantmen and a naval escort on 2 August 1942, the tanker laden with 11,500 tons of kerosene and diesel fuel oils. Gibraltar was reached without incident on the 10th, but thereafter, the convoy entered the “killing zone”, an early casualty being the aircraft carrier Eagle, torpedoed on the 11th with a loss of 260 officers and men. From now on the merchantmen, and Ohio in particular, were subjected to relentless attack, from U-Boats and Italian submarines, the Luftwaffe and Regio Aeronautica, and from Axis surface vessels. On 12 August a combined enemy force of 100 aircraft struck at the merchantmen, the likes of Labern and his fellow D.E.M.S. Gunners undoubtedly being kept busy, but Ohio ultimately fell victim to the Italian submarine Axum, which delivered an accurate torpedo attack amidst the chaos and carnage of the ongoing air strike. Ohio was hit amidships, a huge column of flame leaping high-up above mast level. The resultant damage included a hole in her port side, measuring 24 by 27 feet, a gaping hole in her buckled deck, and the loss of steering gear and compass. No less concerning was the kerosene seeping through the damaged tanks. Here, then, as cited, the moment Labern and his men fought the blaze, while Mason and his crew rigged up emergency steering gear from aft, the tanker even reaching 13 knots, fortuitous progress given pending events. Nearing Pantelleria, Ohio was marked out for the special attention of 60 Stukas, bombs and machine-gun fire raking her decks, the 3-inch A.A. gun in the bows being put out of action but Labern and the D.E.M.S. Gunners breaking up some of the approaching formations and downing at least one enemy aircraft, the wreckage of which crashed into Ohio’s starboard side, half of one wing smashing into the upper work of the bridge. But the enemy aircraft kept on coming, two sticks of bombs straddling the tanker and lifting her clean out of the water and others stopping her engines on two occasions, the resultant periods of “restarting” leaving her a sitting duck. In fact, at one stage, most of the crew were taken off by H.M.S. Penn, only to be returned the following day when it was decided to take the stricken tanker in tow. Yet again, however, the Ohio was hit, a bomb falling near the original damage caused her by the Axum’s torpedo strike and reducing her to 4 or 5 knots; a preliminary damage report revealed that she had almost certai...

The unique Brunei D.S.M. pair awarded to Petty Officer Mechanician P. J. D. Kirwin, Royal Navy, Stoker Petty Officer of the leading lighter at the opposed Royal Marines Commando raid against heavily armed Indonesian supported rebels at Limbang, Brunei, on 12 December 1962, who, ‘when his craft came under heavy fire, left the safety of his engine room, grasped his automatic weapon, and engaged the rebels himself at very close range’ - one of just four D.S.M.s awarded to the Royal Navy in the period from the Korean War in 1953 until the Falklands War in 1982 Distinguished Service Medal, E.II.R., 2nd issue (P/KX.869578 P. J. D. Kirwin. P.O.M. (E) R.N.); Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Brunei (KX.869578 P. J. D. Kirwin. P.O.M. (E). R.N.) this with officially re-impressed naming, extremely fine (2) £10,000-£14,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, May 2022. D.S.M. London Gazette 31 May 1963: ‘For gallant and distinguished services in operations in Brunei during the period 8th to 23rd December 1962.’ Up to 1962, the island of Borneo was divided into the vast southern area under Indonesian rule and three British dependencies, Sarawak, North Borneo and, sandwiched between them, the tiny but very wealthy protectorate of Brunei. With the sun gradually setting on British interests in this part of the Far East, a proposal to include these three northern Borneo states into the new Federation of Malaysia was opposed by Indonesia which then proceeded to back the dissident TNKU in mounting an insurrection in Brunei with the aim of maintaining a North Borneo Union. To further this, in December 1962 the rebels occupied several towns, including Brunei town and at Limbang across the border in Sarawak, they held a number of hostages, including the British Government’s Agent - the ‘Resident’, ‘Dick’ Morris - his wife and a nursing sister. There were indications that the hostages were to be executed on 12 December. At this time 42 Commando, who were awaiting Christmas in Singapore, were put on short notice, and two days later ‘L’ Company, under Captain Jeremy Moore (later to command British Land Forces during the Falklands War), flew to Brunei Town where the Gurkhas had restored order. In fact, most of the trouble had been quickly stamped out, except at Limbang, only accessible by river. Tasked with rescuing the Limbang hostages, Moore’s urgency was further sharpened when it was learned that the TKNU had murdered some hostages at Bangar. At the waterfront in Brunei he met the Senior Naval Officer, Lieutenant-Commander J. J. Black (who by coincidence would also rise to senior command during the Falklands War as Captain of the aircraft carrier H.M.S. Invincible) who had requisitioned two Z-Lighter landing craft for the raid, the Nakhoda Manis and the Sindaun, and provided these with five man crews from the minesweepers Fiskerton and Chawton under his command. Lieutenant Willis, being Black’s First Lieutenant, was appointed as the Senior Naval Officer charged with ensuring that the task force arrived off Limbang but once the assault landing was under way, the lighters would then come under the tactical direction of the senior Royal Marine on board. None of the Royal Navy men under Willis had any experience in handling Z-Craft or landing craft operations but they were now being committed to the daunting prospect of an opposed landing. At 10pm on 11 December, the understrength ‘L’ Company of 87 men, faces blackened, all wearing green berets with glinting cap badges for identification, filed on to the waiting Z-Craft. On board the lead lighter, Nakhoda Manis - commanded by Willis - was Captain Moore, his reconnaissance group, part of Company HQ, and 5 Troop. Also aboard as guide was Captain Muton, the Brunei Director of Marine who would later receive the M.B.E. for his efforts and four more Royal Navy crew including Petty Officer Mechanician Kirwin. The assault went in at first light: ‘When they were 300yds from the Limbang police station, and as the leading craft came abreast of the huts south of the town,‘it erupted like a disturbed ants' nest as the rebels stood to’. At 200yds the Commando Intelligence Sergeant called through the loud-hailer in Malay: ‘The rebellion is over . . . you should lay down your arms.' They replied with automatic weapons - an LMG, three or four SMGs - and some dozen rifles, supported by over 100 shotguns. The instantaneous counter-fire from both craft gave the commandos, thanks to their Vickers machine-guns, the initiative, enabling the leading craft to beach half a minute later only 30yds from the police station. Two marines of the leading No.5 Troop were killed before the craft gained the bank and their OC, Lt ‘Paddy’ Davis, was wounded as he jumped ashore. Sgt Bickford led two Sections of the Troop against the police station, which was quickly cleared, but the naval coxswain of the leading craft had been wounded and as the craft drifted off the bank, Lt D.O. Willis, RN, drove it hard back ashore; but this shallow draught lighter broached to 150yds upstream between the hospital and the home of the British Resident. Capt Moore sent the reserve section ashore, with HQ personnel led by TSM McDonald, and they cleared the hospital. As they came through to the back of this building, the Troop sergeant and two marines were killed, ‘for the jungle comes literally right down to the back door of the hospital’. The grounding of the craft up-river had been a fortunate accident, for Capt Moore found some of the hostages in the hospital. A rebel had fired at them but missed, and no one was hurt. While the ground between the hospital and the police station was being cleared, as was the Resident’s house, the Company Commander was told of more hostages. Therefore, he organised the clearing of the rest of the town to the south, and by the afternoon had released another eight hostages but at nightfall there were still rebels inside the Company’s perimeter, two of whom were killed close to the marines’ positions. Next day the town was secured. Five marines had been killed and six wounded (including a sailor), but the action here, coupled with those of the Gurkhas and Queen's Own Highlanders elsewhere in Brunei, had broken the rebellion. At Limbang alone 15 rebels had been killed and 50 captured from a force of 350, - twice the expected size. They had been taken by surprise, as the commandos now discovered. The Vickers guns in the second craft had been masked, the Company Commander also learnt, by the leading craft, until QMS Cyril Quoins asked the officer commanding this lighter if he could pull out of line to give them a clearer shot. ‘Sergeant Major’, the officer replied, ‘Nelson would have loved you’, and promptly swung his craft into a more exposed position.’ (The Royal Marines by James D. Ladd refers.) It is also worth quoting Captain Jeremy Moore’s observations, made much later: ‘It is perhaps interesting to note that, though my assessment of where the enemy headquarters might be was right, I was quite wrong about the hostages. Furthermore, it was chance that the second beaching happened where it did, that resulted in us taking the hospital from the direction we did. It could be that this saved us heavier casualties, though I assess the most important factor in the success of the operation was first class leadership by junior NCOs. Their section battle craft was a joy to watch and the credit for this belongs to the troop and Section commanders.’ Moore received a Bar to the Military C...

The exceptional Great War Tigris Flotilla operations Posthumous V.C. awarded to Lieutenant-Commander C. H. Cowley, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, the “Pirate of Basra”: having served on steamships up and down the Tigris and Euphrates rivers pre-hostilities, he mastered Arabic and made many local friends, and was ideally suited to serve as a river-pilot, interpreter and intelligence agent for the British - small wonder then that his Turkish captors murdered him after he was taken prisoner in a suicidal attempt to reinforce the Kut garrison in the Julnar in April 1916 Victoria Cross, the reverse of the suspension bar engraved (Lt. Comdr. C. H. Cowley, R.N.V.R.), the reverse centre of the cross dated ‘24 April 1915’, in its Hancocks & Co case of issue; together with his original Buckingham Palace memorial scroll in the name of ‘Lt. Commander Charles Henry Cowley, V.C., R.N.V.R.’, extremely fine £180,000-£220,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Private sale by Cowley’s descendants to Spink & Son and thence to the R. C. Witte Collection. V.C. London Gazette 2 February 1917 - joint citation with Lieutenant H. O. B. Firman, R.N.: ‘At 8 p.m. on 24 April 1916, with a crew from the Royal Navy under Lieutenant Firman, R.N., assisted by Lieutenant-Commander Cowley, R.N.V.R., the Julnar, carrying 270 tons of supplies left Falahiyah in an attempt to reach Kut. Her departure was covered by all artillery and machine-gun fire that could be brought to bear, in the hope of distracting the enemy’s attention. She was, however, discovered and shelled on her passage up the river. At 1 a.m. on the 25th, General Townshend reported she had not arrived, and that at midnight a burst of heavy firing had been heard at Magasis, some eight and a half miles from Kut by river, which had suddenly ceased. There could be but little doubt that the enterprise had failed, and the next day the Air Service reported the Julnar in the hands of the Turks at Magasis. The leaders of this brave attempt, Lieutenant H. O. B. Firman, R.N., and his assistant - Lieutenant-Commander C. H. Cowley, R.N.V.R. - the latter of whom throughout the campaign in Mesopotamia performed magnificent service in command of the Mejidieh - have been reported by the Turks to have been killed; the remainder of the gallant crew, including five wounded, are prisoners of war. Knowing well the chances against them, all the gallant officers and men who manned the Julnar for the occasion were volunteers. I trust that the services in this connection of Lieutenant H. O. B. Firman, R.N., and Lieutenant-Commander C. H. Cowley, R.N.V.R., his assistant, both of whom were unfortunately killed, may be recognised by the posthumous grant of some suitable honour.’ Charles Henry Cowley was born in Baghdad in February 1872, the eldest son of Henry Victor Cowley, an Irishman who was Senior Captain of the Euphrates and Tigris Steamship Company. His mother was half Armenian, being the daughter of Captain A. C. Holland, a former officer of the Indian Navy who later became a Tigris river boat captain, and Sushan Minas, a refugee from Persia who had fled to Baghdad in the 1830s, following the massacre of her parents. However, under English Law at the time of his birth, Cowley was a British subject - a significant distinction in light of future events. Educated in Liverpool, Cowley joined the training ship Worcester as a Cadet in January 1885 and, in July 1888, he was apprenticed to McDiarmid & Co., with whom he gained his first seagoing experience under sail. Four years later, on the sudden death of his father, he joined his mother at her adopted home in Baghdad, where he followed his grandfather and father into Lynch Bros employ on the waterways of Mesopotamia. A professional to his finger tips, he quickly soaked up the local language and customs, so much so that a fellow employee observed that by the outbreak of hostilities, no man carried greater influence over the Arabs than Cowley. By August 1914, he was the company’s senior captain and in command of the Mejidieh, in which steamer he was ordered from Basra to Baghdad to evacuate all British nationals who wished to leave. His command having then been formally requisitioned by the Royal Navy, he went on to play a critical role in carrying troops back and forth on the Euphrates and Tigris, fine work that also came to the attention of the Turks, who sentenced him to death in absentia at a military court hearing held in Baghdad - and even sent him a message declaring him to be a ‘pirate’. Such accusations appealed to Cowley’s sense of humour and, far from being perturbed, he took to flying the ‘skull and cross-bones’ flag whenever he returned to Basra. Among the more notable operations carried out by the Mejidieh in this period was her part in shelling enemy troops during the capture of Kurnah, when she had embarked two 18-pounder guns and some gunners from the R.G.A. Cowley’s ‘meritorious conduct’ was duly noted by their Lordships and he received a special letter of thanks from the Admiralty. While during the rapid advances made in the spring and summer of 1915, Cowley’s command was a leading participant of “Towshend’s Regatta”, often acting as a floating H.Q. for the General and his staff. Later still, after the tide turned at Ctesiphon, the Mejidieh was the means by which hundreds of wounded men escaped Basra. In August 1915, in an effort to protect Cowley in the event of capture, he was appointed to the temporary rank of Lieutenant-Commander in the “Wavy Navy”, and duly borne on the books of H.M.S. Espiegle for service with river steamers in Mesopotamia. But by this stage his reputation for being an infuriating thorn in the side of Turkish interests was sufficient to prompt an attempt to have him murdered, an assassin with a dagger boarding the Mejidieh one night in November 1915, only to seriously wound Captain Wingate, who was occupying the bed normally used by Cowley. Here, then, admirable evidence to contend that his subsequent decision to join the ill-fated Julnar enterprise was doubly courageous. Of his subsequent V.C.-winning exploits, Stephen Smelling’s history of Great War Naval V.Cs states: ‘Cowley received orders to take Julnar to Amarah on 14 April. The following day a call for volunteers to crew her resulted in every man of the Tigris Flotilla stepping forward. Twelve unmarried men were selected: Leading Seaman William Rowbotham, Engine Room Artificer Alexander Murphy, Leading Stoker Herbert Cooke, Able Seaman Montague Williams, Stoker Charles Thirkill, Stoker Samuel Fox, Able Seaman Herbert Blanchard, Able Seaman John Featherbee, Able Seaman Harold Ledger, Stoker George Foreshaw, Able Seaman Alfred Veale, and Able Seaman William Bond. And on 19 April Wemyss reported Julnar commissioned ‘for special duty’. Like Reed’s rank, the steamer’s new status was to be a brief one, lasting only as long as the mission. Six days were spent in Amarah fitting out. Reed wrote: ‘All cabin woodwork was removed from the inside, and the mast and top-deck stanchions were cut away. The ship was plated with armour 3/8-inch thick round the bridge and over the boiler and engine rooms, bags of atta [flour] being placed between the armour and the ship’s sides to give additional protection against bullets and shell splinters.’ The steamer was then carefully loaded with around 270 tons of food and medical provisions until, in Able Seaman Bond’s description, she resembled a floating &...

The South Atlantic and Gulf operations pair awarded to Leading Steward M. W. Devine, Royal Navy, who sustained concussion when H.M.S. Coventry was bombed and sunk in May 1982 South Atlantic 1982, with rosette (AL STD M W Devine D156565L HMS Coventry); General Service 1962-2007, 1 clasp, Gulf (L STD M W Devine D156565L RN) mounted for display, good very fine (2) £1,600-£2,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- H.M.S. Coventry, a Type 42-class destroyer launched in 1974, served during the Falklands War under the command of Captain D. Hart Dyke, initially as part of the air defence vanguard for the two aircraft carriers, H.M.S. Hermes and H.M.S. Invincible. On 25 May 1982, Coventry was attacked and hit by three bombs, and sank in less than 30 minutes, with the loss of 19 killed and 30 injured. One of the bombs exploded beneath the computer room, destroying it and the nearby operations room. A second entered the forward engine room, exploding beneath the junior ratings’ dining room. The third bomb failed to detonate. Hart Dyke, father of the award-winning actress Miranda Hart, later described Coventry’s role and loss in Four Weeks in May, which was turned into a B.B.C. documentary, titled Sea of Fire. Of the moment the bombs hit, he recalled: ‘There was a vicious shockwave, a blinding flash and searing heat … the force and the shock of the impact shook my whole body to the core. All power and communication were lost, the ship stopped, burning furiously and beginning to role.’ The surviving crew were rescued by H.M.S. Broadsword. Devine, who sustained concussion, went on to serve in the Gulf operations in H.M.S. Charybdis.

The scarce Great War D.S.C. and Bar group of five awarded to Lieutenant-Commander Reginald Allen, Royal Naval Reserve, who won his D.S.C. in the Gallipoli landings of April 1915, and his Bar for services in Q-ships Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R., the reverse hallmarked London 1916, with Second Award Bar; 1914-15 Star (Mid. R. Allen, R.N.R.); British War and Victory Medals, with small M.I.D. oak leaves (S.Lt. R. Allen. R.N.R.); Royal Naval Reserve Decoration, G.V.R., the reverse hallmarked London 1928, mounted as worn, good very fine (5) £3,000-£4,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, September 2001. D.S.C. London Gazette 14 March 1916: ‘Probationary Midshipman Reginald Allen, H.M.S. Europa. For services performed under shell fire on the beaches and in steam boats off the beaches.’ Also commended for service in action during the operations in Gallipoli, April 1915-January 1916. Bar to D.S.C. London Gazette 17 November 1917: ‘Sub. Lieutenant, D.S.C., R.N.R. For services in action against enemy submarines.’ For the possible destruction of an enemy submarine by the Q-ship Chagford. One of only approximately 92 bars to the D.S.C. awarded during the Great War. The following extract is taken from Q Ships and their Story by E. Keble Chatterton: “In the spring of 1917 there was a 2,905-ton steamship, called the Bracondale, in the employment of the Admiralty as a collier. It was decided that she would make a very useful Q-ship, so at the beginning of April she was thus commissioned and her name changed to Chagford. She was fitted out at Devonport and armed with a 4-inch, two 12-pounders, and a couple of torpedo tubes, and was ready for sea at the end of June. Commanded by Lieutenant D. G. Jeffery, R.N.R., she proceeded to Falmouth in order to tune everything up, and then was based on Buncrana, which she left on August 2 for what was to be her last cruise, and I think that in the following story we have another instance of heroism and pertinacity of great distinction. Chagford’s position on August 5 at 4.10 a.m. was roughly 120 miles north-west of Tory Island, and she was endeavouring to find two enemy submarines which had been reported on the previous day. At the time mentioned she was herself torpedoed just below the bridge, and in this one explosion was caused very great injury: for it disabled both her torpedo tubes and her 4-inch gun; it shattered the boats on the starboard side as well as the Captain’s cabin and chart room. In addition, it also wrecked all the voice-pipe connections to the torpedo tubes and guns, and it flooded the engine-room and put the engines out of commission, killing one of the crew. Lieutenant Jeffery therefore ‘abandoned’ ship [i.e. sent off the panic party], and just as the boats were getting away two periscopes and a submarine were sighted on the starboard side 800 yards away. As soon as the enemy came to the surface fire was opened on her by the two 12-pounders and both Lewis and machine-guns, several direct hits being observed. The submarine then dived, but at 4.40 a.m. she fired a second torpedo at Chagford, which hit the ship abaft the bridge on the starboard side. From the time the first torpedo had hit, the enemy realised that the Chagford was a warship, for the 4-inch gun and torpedo tubes had been made visible, and now that the second explosion had come Lieutenant Jeffery decided to recall his boats so that the ship might genuinely be abandoned. The lifeboat, dinghy, and a barrel raft were accordingly filled, and about 5.30 a.m. the enemy fired a third torpedo, which struck also on the starboard side. Having sent away in the boats and raft everyone with the exception of himself and a Lieutenant, R.N.R. [James S. Hely], two sub-lieutenants, R.N.R. [Reginald Allen, D.S.C., and George E. Martin], also an assistant paymaster, R.N.R. [Harry Manley], and one petty officer [E. A. Edgecombe], Lieutenant Jeffery stationed these in hiding under cover of the fo’c’sle and poop, keeping a smart look-out, however, through the scuttles. Here was another doomed ship rolling about in the Atlantic without her crew, and only a gallant handful of British seamanhood still standing by with but a shred of hope. To accentuate their suspense periscopes were several times seen, and from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. a submarine frequently appeared on the surface at long range, and almost every hour a periscope passed round the ship inspecting her cautiously. During the whole of this time Chagford was settling down gradually but certainly. At dark Lieutenant Jeffery, fearing that the enemy might attempt boarding, placed Lewis and Maxim guns in position and served out rifles and bayonets to all. Midnight came, and after making a further examination of the damage, Lieutenant Jeffery realized that it was impossible for the Chagford to last much longer, for her main deck amidships was split from side to side, the bridge deck was badly buckled, and the whole ship was straining badly. Therefore, just before half-past midnight, these five abandoned the ship in a small motor-boat which they had picked up at sea some days previously, but before quitting Chagford they disabled the guns, all telescopic sights and strikers being removed. Having shoved off, they found to their dismay that there were no tanks in the motor-boat, so she had to be propelled by a couple of oars, and it will be readily appreciated that this kind of propulsion in the North Atlantic was not a success. They then thought of going back to the ship, but before they could do so they were fortunately picked up at 7.30 a.m. by H.M. trawler Saxon, a large submarine having been seen several times on the horizon between 4 and 7 a.m. The trawler then proceeded to hunt for the submarine, but, as the latter had now made off, volunteers were called for and went aboard Chagford, so that by 4 p.m. Saxon had commenced towing her [Sub-Lieutenant Allen was again amongst the volunteers on this occasion]. Bad luck again overcame their efforts, for wind and sea had been steadily increasing, and of course there was no steam, so the heavy work of handling cables had all to be done by hand. Until the evening the ship towed fairly well at 2 knots, but, as she seemed then to be breaking up, the tow rope had to be slipped, and just before eight o’clock next morning (August 7) she took a final plunge and disappeared. The Saxon made for the Scottish coast and landed the survivors at Oban on the morning of the eighth. In this encounter, difficult as it was, Chagford had done real service, for she had damaged the submarine so much that she could not submerge, and this was probably U-44 which H.M.S. Oracle sighted in the early hours of August 12 off the north coast of Scotland, evidently bound to Germany. Oracle chased her; U-44 kept diving and coming to the surface after a short while. She had disguised herself as a trawler and was obviously unable to dive except for short periods. Oracle shelled and then rammed her, so that U-44 was destroyed and Chagford avenged.” Lieutenant Jeffery was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, while Sub-Lieutenant Allen got a Bar to his Distinguished Service Cross, and Sub-Lieutenant Martin and Assistant Paymaster Manley both received the Distinguished Service Cross. Reginald Allen was born at Warrington in 1895, was appointed Midshipman, Royal Naval Reserve, on 15 August 1911, and in September 1914 was serving aboard the armed merchant cruiser Teutonic. In January 1915 he transferred to the battleship Triumph and would appear to have been one of the survivors from that ship when she was torpedoed and sunk by a...

The highly emotive Norway 1940 ‘V.C. action’ C.G.M. awarded to Petty Officer W. T. W. Scott, Royal Navy, whose guns were seen to re-engage the enemy after his destroyer H.M.S. Glowworm rammed the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, and was sinking: he was one of a handful of survivors from this magnificent but hopeless duel against overwhelming odds Conspicuous Gallantry Medal, G.VI.R., 1st type (P.O. W. T. W. Scott, P/J. 113793) officially engraved naming, good very fine £18,000-£22,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Douglas-Morris Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, February 1997 and July 2003. C.G.M. London Gazette 10 July 1945: ‘For great gallantry in H.M.S. Glowworm’s last action on 8 April 1940. H.M.S. Glowworm attacked the German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and, after inflicting damage, was sunk with colours flying.’ In the original Admiralty letter of notification for the recipient’s award, dated 18 July 1945, which is included with the Lot, it is stated that Scott was to be decorated ‘for great bravery in charge of two of the guns of H.M.S. Glowworm during a very gallant action fought on 8 April 1940 against overwhelming odds. After your ship had rammed the enemy and was about to sink from the damage she had received in the action, your guns re-opened fire and scored a hit at close range.’ Churchill’s conjecture that the Glowworm had been sunk by greatly superior forces was an accurate one, but it would be another five years before returning P.O.Ws could reveal the full story of her momentous duel with the Admiral Hipper, an engagement which resulted in a posthumous V.C. to her Captain, Lieutenant-Commander G. B. Roope, R.N. In April 1940, the British War Cabinet, pressed by the French, had resolved to mine Norwegian waters around Narvik, in order to stem the flow of Swedish iron ore to Germany. And the British Expeditionary Force, originally intended for service in the Finnish Winter War, was rapidly recalled and placed on standby in the event of Nazi intervention. In the event, the mining operation, which had been due to commence on the 5th, was delayed until the 8th, due to the French backing out of an agreement to launch some mines on the Rhine in exchange. As it transpired, this was a vital delay. On 7 April the battle cruiser Renown, steaming northwards in the Norwegian Sea to take part in the mining operation, received a signal from one of her four escorting destroyers, the Glowworm, reporting a man overboard and requesting permission to turn back and carry out a search. Given the affirmative, the Glowworm scoured the area for two hours but in vain, and her Captain, Lieutenant-Commander G. B. Roope, R.N., called the search off. That night, as the weather deteriorated, Glowworm was forced to reduce speed, falling yet further behind the Renown and her consorts. Shortly after daybreak on the 8th, Roope sighted a destroyer to the north which at first identified herself as Swedish, but which was in fact the German Paul Jakobi. Without further ado, the latter opened fire. Glowworm responded in kind, with 12 salvoes from her 4.7-inch guns, before switching her attention to another German destroyer, the Bernd von Arnim, which was crammed full of enemy troops for the invasion of Trondheim. Roope decided to shadow her to see whether she would lead him to intelligence of any enemy capital ships. Thus far, the Glowworm was in relatively good shape, although her gun control tower had been flooded by the heavy seas and another two crew members swept overboard. Seven others, too, had been injured by the destroyer’s violent rolling. A short while into her shadowing of the Bernd von Arnim, about five miles to the northwest of her earlier contacts, the Glowworm came upon the 10,000-ton heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, armed with eight 8-inch and twelve 4-inch guns. The latter was also crammed with enemy troops destined for Trondheim. And Roope had barely got away his enemy sighting report before the Admiral Hipper’s very first salvo found its mark. Although facing impossible odds, he now swung his 1345-ton destroyer onto course for a torpedo attack, under cover of smoke, but had barely uttered the the words of command when another enemy shell found its mark, killing or wounding the Surgeon’s sick bay party. Another shell brought down part of the foremast and wireless aerials, which fouled the steam siren on the funnel, so that Glowworm embarked on her final journey accompanied by the sounds of a strange, tortured wail. Inevitably, perhaps, her spread of her five torpedoes failed to stop the Admiral Hipper, none of them finding their mark. Meanwhile, another direct hit had started a large fire in the engine room, but the gallant Roope ordered a second torpedo attack, emerging from smoke to cross the enemy’s bow from port to starboard, a scene captured by a camera aboard the heavy cruiser. Again, however, the strike failed, and Roope now ordered a sharp turn to starboard to ram the enemy, an objective achieved at 20 knots, the impact resulting in 100 feet of armoured plating being torn from the Admiral Hipper’s starboard side. But no vital damage had been inflicted on the enemy, and, as Glowworm drew away, she was swept by fire from smaller weapons at point-blank range. It was at this juncture, when Glowworm had drifted to a range of about 400 yards, that Petty Officer Scott and his surviving gun crew got away a final salvo that found its mark. At 10 a.m. Roope gave the order to abandon ship but remained on the bridge himself, smoking a cigarette. Later, however, some survivors saw him assist others into their lifejackets, and again, in the water, alongside the Admiral Hipper, but by then too weak to take a rope. According to John Winton’s The Victoria Cross at Sea: ‘Gerard Roope was a large, burly man, with a broad face, firm jaw and forthright manner. He was a career naval officer, devoted to the Service. His ship’s company called him ‘Old Ardover’, for his habit of altering course violently towards his objective whether or not it was the men’s mealtime or any other consideration. It was typical of him to go straight for Hipper ...’ The chivalrous enemy commander, Captain Helmuth Heye, actually stayed for over an hour to pick up survivors, eventually rescuing one Officer and 30 ratings out of Glowworm’s original complement of 149 men. Unlike two of the Glowworm’s survivors who died in captivity, Petty Officer Walter Thomas William Scott was repatriated from Marlag und Milag Nord, Westertimke (Tarnstedt) in 1945, and received his C.G.M. from the hands of the King at an investiture on 30 October 1945. Sold with original Admiralty letter of notification for the award of the C.G.M., dated 18 July 1945.

The important Navarino and Arctic exploration pair awarded to Seaman John Park, Royal Navy, a member of Captain John Ross’s private expedition in the Victory of 1829-33, during which they discovered the Northern Magnetic Pole but were forced to spend four winters in the Arctic Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Navarino (John Park.); Arctic 1818-55 (John Park from 1829 to 1833) contemporarily engraved on the edges, good very fine (2) £20,000-£24,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- By 1829 the Admiralty had been discouraged from continuing the search to find the North West Passage and it therefore fell to private enterprise to continue the search for the route. Captain John Ross was placed in command of this expedition and the plan was to follow the route of Parry’s voyage in 1824-25, by sailing down Prince Regent Inlet and from there finding a route to the west. In May 1829 he sailed in Victory, a small paddle steamer and the first steam ship to be used for Arctic exploration. She was accompanied by a tender named Krusenstern. The ship’s engine was so large that it took up most of the room on board. It was found, during the voyage, that she was faster using sails than using the engine so eventually its use was discontinued. Ross followed Parry’s route across Lancaster Sound and down Prince Regent Inlet to Fury Beach. There they found the stores and food left by Parry when Fury had been abandoned in 1825. From Fury Beach they continued southward tracing the coast of North Somerset to its southern tip, surveying more than two hundred miles of coastline. Instead of turning into Brentford Bay (now known as Bellot Strait) which would, in fact, have led westward as this was the northernmost point of mainland America, Ross continued southward and thus missed the extension of the North West Passage. Following the coast to the south of Brentford Bay he eventually reached Felix Harbour where Victory wintered and where they contacted the eskimos. From the ship a number of land journeys undertaken by Lieutenant James Clark Ross, John Ross’s nephew, during which he discovered that the position of the North Magnetic Pole could not be far away. Victory was unable to break out of the ice during the summer of 1830 and remained at Felix Harbour for a further winter. James Clark Ross continued his land exploration during the winter of 1830-31 and in May 1831 located the position of the North Magnetic Pole, where he erected a cairn. He also saw during these land journeys what was later named King William Land, which he explored from its northern tip, Cape Felix, to Victory Point on the west coast. Sixteen years later, this was to be the scene of Franklin’s death and the later abandonment of Erebus and Terror. Throughout 1831, hope continued of the ship clearing the ice and, eventually, late in the season, she broke free and sailed northwards, but she was again caught in the ice before reaching Lancaster Sound and had to spend the third winter at Victory Harbour. Here scurvy hit the crew and it was decided to abandon Victory and to pull the small boats over the ice to Fury Beach to reach the provisions left by Parry. At Fury Beach they found three of the boats left by Parry, and John Ross, with a crew of picked men, sailed ahead to reconnoitre the state of Lancaster Sound. He found it jammed with ice and had therefore to return to Fury Beach where they were forced to spend the winter of 1832-33, their fourth in the Arctic. At Fury Beach they built a house in which to live throughout the winter. When spring came they took to the boats and sailed northwards to Lancaster Sound and, off Navy Board Inlet, they sighted what turned out to be the Isabella which had been Ross’s ship on his 1818 expedition. They were taken aboard and returned to England. Following this John Ross was knighted and his nephew promoted to Commander. John Park was born in 1803, at Bridport, in Dorsetshire, was five feet seven inches high, of a sallow complexion, with light blue eyes. His father, who belonged to the Dock-yard at Portsmouth, had him bound seven years apprentice to a hair-dresser, a trade he did not like, and when his time was out he went to sea in 1821, on board His Majesty’s ship Euryalus, in which he served three years, when he paid off, and immediately joined the Glasgow, on board of which he served three years in the Mediterranean. Being asked by me, “What was the most remarkable event in his life?” he answered, that he “had shaved the Duke of Devonshire in a gale on board the Glasgow.” I then asked, “Were you not on board her at the battle of Navarino?” he replied, “Oh, yes, but that was nothing.” His father having lost his life in the American lakes, where he had volunteered to serve, his mother married Mr More, gunner of the Tenedos, who was formerly in the Hecla, and who recommended him to me. He was a very active, willing young man, and useful in his calling as a barber, but too delicate in constitution for this service. Being a good seaman, and having always conducted himself well, I gave him a strong recommendation, and he was, with Curtis, sent by Admiralty order to the Excellent, to prepare for a gunner’s warrant in the royal navy.’ (Biography by Captain John Ross) Little is known of Park’s later life but in the list of Subscribers to Ross’s Narrative he is shown as care of the John O’Gaunt steamer, Liverpool, which infers that he took up a career in the merchant navy, even though he does appear to have received a commission as Gunner R.N. Sold with Sir John Ross’s Narrative of a second voyage in search of a North West Passage, and of a Residence in the Arctic Regions during the years 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832, 1833, two volumes, London 1835, the title page inscribed ‘Mr John Park with the author’s best regards’, with many colour plates, later leather binding; also with photograph on glass of Park in later life wearing N.G.S. Medal, and named invitation to Lord Mayor’s Dinner, December 1876, ‘to meet the Crews of The Arctic Expedition’ [ie Alert and Discovery for 1876 expedition].

The rare Zeebrugge Raid D.S.C. group of four awarded to Acting Sub-Lieutenant L. R. Blake, Royal Naval Reserve, in command of Coastal Motor Boat No. 7 on 22-23 April 1918 Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R., the reverse hallmarked London 1917 and privately inscribed ‘Zeebrugge 22nd 23rd April 1918.’; 1914-15 Star (Mid. L. R. Blake, R.N.R.); British War and Victory Medals (S. Lt. L. R. Blake, R.N.R.) mounted as worn, light contact marks, otherwise very fine or better (4) £5,000-£7,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Just 27 D.S.C.’s and 2 Second Award Bars given for the Zeebrugge ‘St George’s Day Raid’. D.S.C. London Gazette 23 July 1918: ‘In recognition of distinguished services during the operations against Zeebrugge and Ostend on the night of the 22nd-23rd April 1918:- Act. Sub. Lieut. (Act.) Leslie Robert Blake, R.N.R. In command of a Coastal Motor Boat. Led an attack on enemy vessels moored inside the mole at Zeebrugge with skill and coolness under heavy fire from the shore defences. His boat, though damaged, was successfully brought back into harbour.’ The following narrative is taken from The Blocking of Zeebrugge by Captain A. F. B. Carpenter, V.C., R.N.: ‘Before Vindictive’s arrival at the Mole two coastal motor boats had left the force for the purpose of attacking German vessels inside the Mole. They soon lost sight of one another in the fog and became separated. CMB 7, Sub-Lieut. L. R. Blake, R.N.R., first sighted the Mole about 150 yards away and steamed close round the lighthouse at high speed. Having located the defence booms of barges and nets he followed down the line of the latter until close in shore and then stopped for the purpose of selecting a target. Observing an enemy destroyer alongside the Mole he steamed straight towards her at high speed and fired his torpedo at her. He then stopped to observe the result. The torpedo was seen to explode near the forebridge of the destroyer, but the conditions of visibility rendered it impossible to ascertain the definite result. During this time he was being heavily fired at by machine guns on the Mole and by the shore batteries to the eastward of the canal. Small enemy vessels suddenly appeared and engaged him, and he was further fired at from a dredger which had a machine gun. CMB 7 had other duties to fulfil in connection with smoke screening. Whilst proceeding at high speed for that purpose she collided with an unlighted buoy, which made a large hole in her bows. Speed was increased to lift the bows clear of the water. It soon became apparent that the damage that she had sustained precluded all further chance of being usefully employed, so course was set for home. An engine defect off Ostend necessitated stopping; this, in turn, brought them into imminent danger of sinking. Eventually one of our destroyers took her in tow and brought her safely to Dover.’ CMB 7 was later one of Agar’s boats at Kronstadt but broke down before Agar’s famous VC action. Blake was subsequently in command of CMB 51 in the Caspian Sea from August 1918.

‘As Kingsmill, the third to attack, levelled up for his torpedo drop, Samples saw that the fabric of the aircraft's wings had been torn by enemy flak and was full of holes. But the Swordfish flew on until a cannon shell hit the fuselage immediately between them, wounding both men. When the air gunner, Don Bunce, looked up from his Vickers machine gun, the bloody Samples was shouting directions at him and Kingsmill. Then, screaming insults at the Germans, Bunce shot down one plane while Kingsmill struggled to control the Swordfish. Samples was looking at the German gun crews in their sleek, black anti-flash overalls when he felt a sudden burning sensation in his leg. Looking down, he was astonished to see a neat pattern of holes in his flying boots. But although blood was oozing out, he felt no pain, and he failed to notice that Kingsmill had dropped his torpedo, aimed at Prinz Eugen from about 2,000 yards. With the aircraft on fire and ripped by the flak, Kingsmill struggled to maintain height. He tried to communicate with Samples, not realising that the speaking tube had been shattered. Despite his wounds, Samples climbed up and shouted into his ear: “We'll never make it, ditch near those MTBs" – pointing towards some British boats which had also attacked the Germans. Shortly afterwards the three men were pulled from the drink by friendly hands … ’ The fate of Swordfish W5907 on 12 February 1942, as described in the obituary notice of Lieutenant-Commander ‘Mac’ Samples, D.S.O.; The Daily Telegraph, August 2009, refers. The post-war diplomatic service C.M.G., O.B.E., and outstanding Second War ‘Channel Dash’ D.S.O. group of eight awarded to Lieutenant-Commander R. M. ‘Mac’ Samples, 828 Naval Air Squadron, Fleet Air Arm Flying immediately behind the force leader’s aircraft, as observer to ‘Pat’ Kingsmill in Swordfish W5907, amidst curtains of flak and swathes of cannon shell, Samples sustained extensive wounds, including a smashed ankle and leg, and shrapnel to his right hand, backside and lower back; of the six Swordfish that went in, none returned, just five airmen out of 18 living to tell the tale. The force’s leader, Lieutenant-Commander Eugene Esmonde, D.S.O., R.N., was awarded a posthumous V.C., a distinction which recognised the valour of all of 825’s participating aircrew: ‘Their aircraft shattered, undeterred by an inferno of fire, they carried out their orders, which were to attack the target. Not one came back. Theirs was the courage which is beyond praise’ The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels, complete with neck cravat in its Spink, London case of issue; Distinguished Service Order, G.VI.R., silver-gilt and enamels, reverse of the suspension bar officially dated ‘1942’, with its Garrard & Co. case of issue; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil), Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, silver-gilt; 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Nepal, Coronation Medal 1955, generally very fine or better (8) £30,000-£40,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- C.M.G. London Gazette 4 June 1971. D.S.O. London Gazette 3 March 1942 – joint citation: Temporary Acting Sub-Lieutenant (A.) Charles Major Kingsmill, R.N.V.R. Temporary Sub-Lieutenant (A.) Reginald McCartney Samples, R.N.V.R., who were Pilot and Observer of a Swordfish that was badly hit early in the action by cannon shells from an enemy fighter. Both were wounded but with part of the aircraft shot away, and the engine and upper wings in flames, they flew on undaunted until they had taken aim and fired their torpedo. They then turned and tried to come down near some ships, but these opened fire, so they flew on until their engine stopped and their aircraft came down into the sea. Soon afterwards they were picked up, still cheerful and dauntless, by one of H.M. vessels.’ O.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1963. Reginald McCartney Samples was born in Liverpool on 11 August 1918 and was educated at Rhyl Grammar School and Liverpool University, where he was reading commerce when war was declared. It was direct from university that he joined the Fleet Air Arm in the summer of 1940 and, on completing his training as an observer, he was posted to No. 825 Naval Air Squadron (N.A.S.) in January 1942; some sources state that he was present in the Bismarck action of May 1941, whilst under training. Samples’ hitherto unpublished account of his part in the Channel Dash action, as requested by Commander Prentice, R.N., and dated at Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood, Middlesex, on 26 June 1942, is reproduced here: ‘Sir, I have the honour to submit, as requested, a report on the operation carried out by 825 Squadron against the German warships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prince Eugen in the Channel on Feb. 12th last. May I first of all thank you, sir, for your congratulatory letter and apologies for my belated reply due to difficulties in writing with a damaged hand. 825 Squadron, consisting of 6 Swordfish aircraft and led by Lt. Cdr. Esmonde, took departure over Ramsgate at 1220 on 12th Feb. at a height of 50 ft. to contact the German warships on a course of 142 (T). Kingsmill (my pilot), N.A. Bunce and myself were in ‘C’ machine of the first sub-flight, the second sub-flight being led by Lt. Thompson, R.N. Visibility was patchy and hazy over the sea (there were several feet of snow and ice on land) and though we sighted at about 4-5 miles, the Gneisenau and Eugen were only vaguely to be seen, Scharnhorst apparently being farther north and not visible. The enemy had a screen of destroyers and to make the run on Gneisenau we had to pass between two of them at a range of approx. 3 miles to port and starboard of us. Very heavy flak was encountered at this time and at about 5000 yds. We were attacked by a squadron of Me. 109s which peeled off from about 1500 ft. on our port quarter and came in singly from astern, setting all mainplanes on fire and destroying part of the tail unit and fuselage. Simultaneously, we were hit by flak coming up through the deck, and Kingsmill and myself were both wounded in the left foot and leg. It was very apparent that to maintain the run in would be ridiculous, particularly in the face of enemy F.W. 190s forming astern, so we took a staggering, avoiding turn to port, noticing as we did that the C.O., who had obviously been hit badly, stalled about 200 yds. ahead of us and hit the water. Our aircraft was rather difficult to manage but we were able to come round in a circle and make a second run. It is rather interesting to note here that we passed below the second sub-flight coming into the attack. They were tucked in very close formation – a fact which no doubt explains their total loss. On our second run we were again attacked by fighters but dropped our torpedo at about 2000 yds. and again took avoiding action. We did not claim a hit, as we did not wait and see! Our aircraft was in very bad shape and was lolloping rather than flying along; the rockets and distress signals in the dinghy were exploding in the wing and creating a sight that might have been pleasant to see could we have appreciated it at the time. I endeavoured to get a course home, and the A.G. took over look-out astern, but unfortunately some M.T.Bs which my pilot made for turned out to be E-boats and gave us a hot reception with...

The Great War pair awarded to Lieutenant V. F. A. Galvayne, Royal Air Force, late Royal Naval Air Service, who was killed in action on 4 June 1918, when ‘a bullet entered at the side of his mouth and came out at the back of his head’ during the greatest combat ever fought between seaplanes British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. V. F. A. Galvayne. R.A.F.), together with Memorial Plaque (Vernon Frederick Atride Galvayne), this in its original card envelope, extremely fine (3) £800-£1,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Vernon Frederick Atride Galvayne was born in Egremont, Cheshire, on 4 September 1897, and was educated at Wycliffe School, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, where ‘he was a vigorous, inventive, popular and trustworthy boy, possessing talents of many sorts’; the school’s roll of honour, refers. Having then commenced work with an accountancy firm, Galvayne, changed tack in favour of studying engineering, an ambition curtailed by the outbreak of war. Joining the Royal Naval Air Service as a Flight Sub Lieutenant in September 1916, he qualified as a seaplane pilot and served at Calshot, Westgate, Dover and Dunkirk in the course of 1917, prior to joining R.N.A.S. Felixstowe early in 1918. It was about this time the Germans had achieved some success in engaging individual British seaplanes in superior numbers, by luring them over to Texel by means of false signals. As a result, a force comprising three Felixstowe and two Great Yarmouth seaplanes was assembled on 4 June 1918, to carry out a retaliatory operation. The force was equipped with ‘Felixstowe’ Flying Boats which, with a length of 46ft. and wingspan of 95ft. were among the largest aircraft in operation at the time. Armed with six Lewis guns, and powered by two 345hp. Rolls Royce engines, they were capable of a maximum speed of 85-90 knots. The crew of five comprised two pilots, an observer/gunner, and engineer and a wireless telegraphist, the latter two also being responsible for manning the seaplane’s rear armament if required. As it transpired, they were very much required on 4 June 1918. Having adopted a V-formation in the journey over the North Sea, the force arrived at its chosen patrol line, north-west of Terschelling Island, in the early afternoon. Galvayne was flying N 4302, with fellow pilot Captain Barker, and they were joined by Private Hopkins, as telegraphist, Private Reid, as engineer, and by Ensign Keyes of the U.S. Navy, along for the ride as a gunner. Around 3.30 p.m., one of our seaplanes developed engine trouble and had to ditch, the force commander signalling its crew by Aldis with an instruction to make for the Dutch coast. Soon afterwards, five enemy seaplanes hove into view, heralding the commencement of ‘the greatest action that was fought between seaplanes during the war.’ They chose to pick on the ‘Felixstowe’ which had ditched earlier, and owing to their superior speed, it proved challenging for our remaining seaplanes to keep up an effective fire. Worse still, one of the German aircraft headed off in the direction of its Borkum base to rally support, and at 4.30 p.m. ‘a compact swarm of black specks’ was seen rapidly approaching on the eastern horizon, a swarm that ‘proved to be fifteen seaplanes, in three squadrons of five.’ Captain Robert Leckie, senior officer of the Felixstowe force, took instant action, one of his pilots later recalling he went ‘Hell-for-Leather for them, and drove clean, slap-bang though the enemy formation, splitting it right up, carrying away the wireless aerial of his boat on the top plate of the leading enemy plane.’ In a related article, The Great Seaplane Battle, Hal Giblin takes up the story: ‘Leckie led his machines to port ‘line-ahead’, cutting off three enemy seaplanes making up the right wing their formation. The British trio concentrated the fire of their bow guns and then their port guns onto the enemy as they swept by. So much lead was pumped into these three that their return fire quickly petered out to nothing – Leckie felt sure that this meant they had hit their observers. Still in ‘line ahead’ Leckie now led his flight in a circle around the enemy formation with all guns ‘firing away like blazes,’ the flying boats bumping and rolling all over the place from the many conflicting slipstreams. An enemy seaplane, in trying to get under the tails of Hodson’s machine, was shot down. Another, attacking Leckie’s machine, was also shot down. The fight involving the three remaining British machines went on, and in N 4302, Lieutenant Galvayne, after handing over the controls to Captain Barker, kneeled and faced backwards in the cockpit, the best way to direct evasive action and to advise Barker of the enemy movements behind him. The view of the pilots was so restricted in these huge machines and, as the controls required full ‘hands-on’ attention, it sometimes became very necessary for the second pilot to act as a human rear-view mirror.’ Ensign Keyes of the U.S.N., acting as a gunner in N4302, later penned an account of the action which appeared in the American and British press, in which he described how they swung into battle formation and aimed for the middle of 10 approaching enemy seaplanes: ‘When we were nearly in range four machines on the port side and five on the starboard rose to our level. Two planes passed directly beneath us, shooting upwards. Firing was incessant from the beginning and the air seemed blue with tracer smoke. The Germans used explosive bullets. Once I looked round and noticed Lieutenant Galvayne was in a stooping position, with his head and one arm on his seat … all this I noticed in a fraction of a second, for I had to continue firing. A few minutes later, I turned around once more and found with a shock that Lieutenant Galvayne was in the same position. It was then that the truth dawned on me.’ Galvayne, as subsequently confirmed by Captain Barker, had been shot through the head and died instantly. He was the only British casualty of the action. His comrades from Felixstowe and Great Yarmouth attended his funeral at Birkenhead six days later, and messages of condolence were also received from those who had been interned in Holland following the action. Sold with a file of copied research.

The rare and important Second War St. Nazaire raid D.S.C. group of seven awarded to Lieutenant-Commander (E.) W. H. Locke, Royal Navy, who was Warrant Engineer aboard H.M.S. Campbeltown and taken P.O.W. after the loss of M.L. 177 Distinguished Service Cross, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated ‘1945’, hallmarks for London 1948; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45; Korea 1950-53, 1st issue (Lt. Cdr. W. H. Locke. R.N.); U.N. Korea 1950-54, unnamed, mounted court-style as worn, good very fine or better (7) £30,000-£40,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, June 2008. D.S.C. London Gazette 11 September 1945: ‘For gallantry, determination and devotion to duty in H.M.S. Campbeltown in the raid on St. Nazaire in March 1942.’ Wilfrid Harry Locke was born in Surrey on 5 March 1910 and entered the Royal Navy in January 1926. Appointed as a Warrant Engineer in October 1941, he was placed in charge of the engine-room of the former American four-stacker Campbeltown in early 1942, which ship had been allocated a key role in forthcoming Operation ‘Chariot’, namely to ram the southern caisson of the Normandie Dock in St. Nazaire, laden with delayed action explosives, thereby destroying the facility and denying the Tirpitz use of the only suitable dry-dock on the Atlantic coast. Accordingly, over a two-week period in March 1942, the Campbeltown was fitted out at Devonport and outwardly altered to resemble a German Mowe-class torpedo boat, while internally she was fitted with a special tank containing four tons of T.N.T. and eight-hour delay fuses, which were to be activated two hours before she reached the Normandie Dock. Setting out on her final voyage with the raiding force on 26 March, she took over as Force Leader shortly after midnight on the 28th, when seven and a half miles remained in the run up the Loire. Finally, at about 0130, with less than two miles to go, the German defences awoke. C. E. Lucas Phillips takes up the story in The Greatest Raid of All: ‘A continuous stream of projectiles of all sorts was now striking the Campbeltown, but so violent was the sound of our own weapons that the ring of bullets on her hull and the crack of small shells was hardly noticed; but when larger shells shook her from stem to stern none could be unaware, and what every survivor was to remember for ever afterwards was the unchecked glow of the darts of red and green tracer flashing and hissing across her deck and the quadruple whistle of the Bofors shells. Bullets penetrated her engine and boiler-rooms, ricocheting from surface to surface like hornets, and Locke, the Warrant Engineer, ordered hands to take cover between the main engines of the condensers, except for the throttle watchkeepers ...’ With 200 yards to go a searchlight fortuitously illuminated the check-point of the lighthouse on the end of the Old Mole, enabling Lieutenant-Commander S. H. Beattie on the Campbeltown’s bridge to correct his aim on the caisson. Having then ploughed through the steel anti-torpedo net, the old four-stacker closed on her collision course at 20 knots, and every man aboard braced himself for the impact. At 0134 the Campbeltown crashed into the gate, rearing up and tearing the bottom out of her bows for nearly 40 feet. Commando assault and demolition parties streamed ashore, while below the sea cocks were opened to ensure the Germans could not remove her before she blew up. As she settled by the stern, Beattie evacuated the crew via M.G.B. 314, and Lieutenant Mark Rodier’s M.L. 177. Locke and Beattie, with some 30 or more of Campbeltown’s crew boarded the latter, and started off down river at 0157 hours. Lucas Phillips continues: ‘The boat was embarrassingly overcrowded but Winthrop, Campbeltown’s doctor, helped by Hargreaves, the Torpedo-Gunner, continued to dress and attend to the wounded both above and below deck. Very soon, however, they were picked up again by the searchlights lower down the river and came under fire from Dieckmann’s dangerous 75mm and 6.6-inch guns. Rodier took evasive action as he was straddled with increasing accuracy. The end came after they had gone some three miles. A shell ... hit the boat on the port side of the engine-room lifting one engine bodily on top of the other and stopping both. Toy, the Flotilla Engineer Officer, went below at once. Beattie left the bridge and went down also. He had no sooner left than another shell hit the bridge direct. Rodier was mortally wounded and died a few minutes afterwards ... The engine room was on fire, burning fiercely, and the sprayer mechanism for fire-fighting had also been put out of action. Toy, who had come up momentarily, at once returned to the blazing compartment but was never seen again. Locke, Campeltown’s Warrant Engineer, was able partially to repair the extinguisher mechanism. The flames amidships divided the crowded ship in two, but the ship’s company continued to fight the fire for some three hours by whatever means available. At length, when all means had failed and the fire had spread throughout the boat, the order to abandon ship was given at about 5 a.m. One Carley raft had been damaged, but few of the wounded ratings were got away on the other, and the remainder of those alive entered the icy water, many of them succumbing to the ordeal. All of Campbeltown’s officers were lost except Beattie and Locke, among those who perished being the brilliant and devoted Tibbets, to whose skill and resourcefulness the epic success of the raid was so much due and whose work was soon to be triumphantly fulfilled.’ Locke and the other survivors were rounded up by the Germans by 0930 hours, which was expected to be the last possible time for the acid-eating, delayed action fuses in Campbeltown to work. Thus it was with all the more satisfaction that at 1035 hours the British prisoners, gathered together in small groups across the St. Nazaire area, heard the terrific explosion which blew in the caisson and vaporised Campbeltown’s bows. The stern section was swept forward on a great surge of water and carried inside the Normandie Dock where it sank. Thus, the main goal of the operation was achieved for a cost of 169 dead and about 200 taken P.O.W., many of them wounded, out of an original raiding force of 611 men. Yet only six of Campbeltown’s gallant crew were eventually decorated, Beattie being awarded the Victoria Cross. For his own part, the wounded Locke was hospitalised at Le Baule and Rennes, prior to being transferred to Marlag und Milag Nord camp at Tarnstedt at the end of April 1942. Nor was he a willing prisoner, official records revealing his part in the digging of a 130ft. tunnel from the camp’s dining room in September 1943, as part of a team of 30 men. That having been discovered by the enemy, he joined a team of 60 men in April 1944 in digging another tunnel parallel to the old one, but this too was discovered when a section of the roof collapsed. He also volunteered to make a hasty exit by wire cutting, but this plan was vetoed by the Escaping Committee. His award of the D.S.C. was not gazetted until after his liberation, a distinction that prompted his former boss, Lord Mountbatten, to write in person: ‘From my personal knowledge as Chief of Combined Operations, I know how well deserved this recognition is and am delighted to see that the part you played in such a hazardous expedition has been recognised nearly four years afterwards. I hope that you have fully recovered from your captivity and should like to wis...

The Second War submariner’s D.S.M. group of five awarded to Engine Room Artificer A. J. Cooper, Royal Navy, who was decorated for his gallant deeds in H.M.S. Snapper, prior to her loss with all hands in the Bay of Biscay in February 1941 Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (M.35070 A. J. Cooper., E.R.A.1. H.M.S. Snapper.) impressed naming, small correction to ship’s name; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, mounted as worn, extremely fine (5) £1,400-£1,800 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- D.S.M. London Gazette 9 May 1940: ‘For daring, endurance and resource in the conduct of hazardous and successful operations in His Majesty’s Submarines against the enemy.’ Arthur John Cooper was born in Sheerness, Kent, on 1 December 1903, and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy Artificer in August 1919. Having volunteered for submarines in the summer of 1926, he was awarded the L.S. & G.C. medal in December 1936 and joined H.M.S. Snapper as an E.R.A. 1 in the following year. He was to remain likewise employed up until her loss in February 1941. Snapper was commanded by Lieutenant W. D. A. King, R.N., on the outbreak of hostilities, and commenced her operational career with a series of patrols off the Dutch coast. As related by King in his wartime memoir The Stick and The Stars, it was not until her transfer to Norwegian waters in April-July 1940 that Snapper fired her first shots in anger. ‘We planted one round of high explosive from the 3-inch gun into her forepeak. The result could hardly have been more spectacular. She was carrying aviation spirit and went up in a sheet of flame. Half a dozen figures raced to the side and hurled themselves into the still, ice-blue, ice-cold water which had just thawed and poured out from the frozen Baltic. As they swam towards us a mast appeared on the horizon and I reckoned the hour for enemy aircraft was nigh. I hesitated between my desire to rescue the swimmers and fear of risking my crew and ship. We nosed gently from one survivor to another, with two men hauling them in over the saddle-tanks and lowering the exhausted wet bodies down the forehatch, which is about 20 ft. lower than the conning tower and a dangerous place for the crew to be when there is a likelihood of an emergency dive. The last swimmer was dragged over our casing just as the first aircraft appeared. Deciding to abandon this one man and get the vital forehatch closed, I ordered, “Clear the foredeck and dive.” But Geoffrey Carew-Hunt, my third officer, begged, “Let me get him down, sir.” Weakly I snapped, “Do it quick.” Looking back, I think I should have been heartless. The risk to my ship was unjustifiable. While perhaps fifteen seconds ticked by, Carew-Hunt bravely dragged the wet German down the steep cluttered forehatch and shut it. I waited with my eyes fixed on that approaching black dot in the pale sky, then we gurgled under the translucent sea, urgent to slink away from the huge column of smoke which must draw attention for miles.’ Of the six Germans dragged aboard, two succumbed to their icy ordeal. Snapper went on to sink several other German ships in her favoured hunting grounds of the Skagerrak and Kattegat, among them the merchantman Florida, the auxiliary minesweepers M 1701 H.M. Behrens and M 1702 Carsten Janssen and the armed trawler V 1107. She also attacked the armed merchant cruiser Widder but her torpedoes on that occasion were wide of the mark. Command of Snapper having then passed to Lieutenant G. V. Prowse, R.N. on Christmas Eve 1940, she was ordered to patrol the Bay of Biscay off Ushant in February 1941. Nothing further was heard from her, and it is possible she fell victim to a minefield. Another possibility is that she was sunk by a depth-charge attack delivered by the German minesweepers M-2, M-13 and M-25 on the night of the 10th-11th, west-south-west of Brest. Either way, there were no survivors. The son of Lieutenant-Commander A. J. Cooper and his wife Ada, and the husband of May Katheleen Cooper of Weymouth, Dorsetshire, Arthur is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial. The whereabouts of his L.S. & G.C. medal remains unknown, but it may have been among his possessions at the time of Snapper’s loss. More certain is the fact he never received his D.S.M., the award being sent to his next of kin. Sold with copied war patrol reports for April-May 1940, extracts from The Stick and the Stars by Commander William King, R,N., who had moved to the command of another submarine before Snapper was lost, and several copied photographs of Snapper.

The Great War Q-Ship operations D.S.M. group of five awarded to Able Seaman D. Pearce, who was decorated for his gallantry at the helm of ‘the splendid Penshurst’ in August 1917 Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (S.S.6073. D. Pearce, A.B. Atlantic Ocean. 19 Aug. 1917.) small erasure after rate; 1914-15 Star (SS.6073, D. Pearce, Ord., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (S.S.6073 D. Pearce. A.B. R.N.); Royal Fleet Reserve L.S. & G.C, G.V.R., 2nd issue (SS.6073 (Dev. B., 11016) D. Pearce. A.B. R.F.R.) mounted as worn, nearly extremely fine (5) £1,400-£1,800 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- D.S.M. London Gazette 2 November 1917: ‘The following awards have been approved.’ The original (joint) recommendation states: ‘H.M.S. Penshurst (Q7). Attack on German submarine. 19 August 1917. These three ratings [A.B. Donald Pearce, Seaman Michael Murphy and A.B. Edward Bunting] acted as Quartermaster. Murphy was at the wheel when the torpedo struck and was violently thrown across the bridge, but on seeing that the steering gear on the bridge was damaged, at once proceeded to the hand steering gear aft and carried on. All three subsequently did splendid work in steering the ship under the most disadvantageous conditions, the wheel being situated at the top of the engine room amongst steam and much heat from the engines.’ Donald Pearce was born in Southall, London on 3 May 1896 and entered the Royal Navy as an Ordinary Seaman in June 1915. Having then been borne on the books of H.M.S. Blake, he commenced his career in the clandestine world of Q-Ships on 16 February 1917, when he joined the ship’s company of Q.7 - also known as Penshurst - under the command of Commander F. H. Grenfell, D.S.O., R.N. Described by naval historian Keble Chatterton as ‘a courteous and charming country gentleman whose shy manner concealed an exceptionally gallant spirit,’ Grenfell and his newly enlisted rating would quickly see action, initially in an inconclusive affair against the UC-66 on the 20th. Events on the 22nd proved to be of a more certain nature, when Penshurst engaged the U-84 off the south coast of Ireland. Having avoided a torpedo attack, Grenfell and his men achieved several hits, causing U-84 significant damage and wounding members of her crew. The U-boat managed to limp back to Germany on the surface, where Admiral Scheer described her survival as a miracle. Grenfell was specially promoted to Captain and he was back in action on 8 March when the Penshurst fought another surface action, this time with the UC-44 at the Eastern end of the English Channel. Both vessels were badly damaged, Penshurst requiring a major refit. It was at this juncture that Grenfell was appointed to the Staff of the Director of Anti-Submarine Defence and command of the Penshurst fell to his senior officer, Lieutenant Cedric Naylor, D.S.C., R.N.R. He fought his first action as captain on 2 July, in the Western Approaches, his gunners getting in 16 hits on the U-53 before the submarine fled the scene. But it was for Penshurst’s next action, fought on 19 August 1917, that Pearce was awarded the D.S.M. Badly damaged by a torpedo strike below her bridge, and with her hidden guns prematurely exposed, the Penshurst nonetheless pretended to ‘run away’ when the enemy submarine, the UC-72, surfaced. She then opened fire with her 3-pounder gun in an attempt to entice the submarine closer before opening up with her heavier guns. Penshurst also used her 12-pounder with good effect and hit UC-72 four times, causing her to break off the action and dive. Penshurst, in her damaged state, was unable to follow up with depth charges and so set course for Plymouth and much needed repairs. Pearce was subsequently present on the occasion of Penshurst’s loss in the Irish Sea on 24 December 1917, when she was torpedoed by the U-110. Owing to the Q-ship’s heavy list, her guns were limited in their capability to return fire, but she managed to get in two hits before slipping beneath the waves. Remarkably, in the circumstances, all but two of the ‘Splendid Penshurst’s’ crew were rescued. Pearce ended the war with an appointment in Europa I and was demobilised in June 1920. Sold with copied research including Naylor’s report following the loss of the Penshurst in December 1917.

Four hallmarked silver cigarette cases, the largest with engine turned decoration and initials 'TBD' to top left corner, 12.5 x 9cm, a further example with curved shape for the breast pocket, with the initials 'CH' to the top, 9 x 8.2cm, an example with striped engine turned decoration and suspended on chain, with a central cartouche depicting a cat with the words 'Touch not the cat but a glove', length 9cm, and one further example, combined approx 14.8ozt (4).

S BLANCKENSEE & SON LTD; a George V hallmarked silver cigarette case, with engine turned decoration, Birmingham 1934, 11.5 x 8cm, approx 4.75ozt/148.5g.

SANDERS & MACKENZIE; a George V hallmarked silver napkin ring, Birmingham 1928, a further George V hallmarked silver napkin ring with engine turned decoration, a hallmarked silver topped inkwell and a cased Edward VII hallmarked silver bread fork, length 22cm, combined weighable silver approx 2.2ozt/68.3g.Condition Report: Yes, the fork is loaded but stated weight is excluding the fork.

A large hallmarked silver cigarette case, with all over engine turned decoration, the top left panel with the initials 'NI', 10.5 x 8cm, approx 4.5ozt.

Two cylinder caps from a Cooper Climax engine, diameter of each approx 5cm, mounted on a modern teak board, 17.5 x 10cm.

MAMOD; a steam tractor traction engine, with original pamphlet, height 17cm, length 25.5cm.

Stationary steam engine with burner and chimney (1)

Bachmann OO Gauge 4-6-2 BR Apple Green Class A1 tender locomotive "Tornado" 60163, No.32-550A, BR Green Class 24 diesel D5061 & BR Mk1 Horse Boxes, No.s 38-525X & 38-526Z, plus Hornby 2-6-4T BR black (weathered) Class L1 Thompson tank engine, R3007 and two vans, No.s R6508& R6434, all boxed (7)

Hornby O Gauge No.1 Engine Shed & No.2 Tunnel (2)

Marklin HO gauge DB 89 006 tank engine together with two diesel shunters, all three rail (3).

Match Superfast Series 1-75 including Ford Tractor No.39, Toe Joe No.74, Stretchea Fetcha Ambulance No.46, Office Site Truck No.60, DAF Tipper Container Truck No.47, Kennel. Truck No.50, Articulated Truck No.50, Mack Dump Truck No.28, Cattle Truck No.37, Field Car No.18, Merryweather Fire Engine No.35, Rod Roller No.21, Freeway Gas Tanker No.63, Pipe Truck No.10, Freeman Inter-City Commuter No.22, Mod Tractor No.25, Volkswagen Camper No.23 & The Londoner No.17, all boxed (18)

Corgi Major diecast Simon Snorkel Fire Engine, No.1127 & Dinky Supertoys 20-ton Lorry-Mounted "Coles" Crane, No.972 (x2), all boxed (poor) (3)

Tomy Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends deluxe set, boxed 7403, with other accessories and books (1 box)

ERTL Thomas the Tank Engine locomotives (x27) & Rolling Stock, on card with bubblepack (1 box)

Mamod S.E.2 Stationary Steam Engine in original box (poor) (1)

Collection of boxed Swarovski Crystal ornaments including Train Engine, Train Carriages, Harp, Kangaroo, Squirrel etc (qty)

Hornby OO Gauge Flying Scotsman Set (Accessories Missing), boxed RS608, Midland Belle Tank Engine & Rolling Stock (Parts Missing) & Dublo 4-6-2 BR Green Early Emblem 3 rail Pacific A4 locomotive and tender Silver King 60016 with tinplate coaches and track, boxed EDP11 (all boxes poor) (3)

Live steam stationary engine in wooden transit box.

Fender Effects Engine room LVL 5 power supply plus Fender Effects Engine room LVL8 Power supply - both boxed and unused

Waldmann fountain pen in engine turned silver case (stamped 925), with original box.

Wren OO Gauge 0-6-2 LNER N2 Tank Engine 9522, boxed W2217 (1)

Late 19th/early 20th century gentlemen’s walking cane with Malacca shaft, decorated with painted Tiger stripes and a silver pommel handle with engine turned decoration, probably Indian origin. 89cm overall length.

Marklin HO train set including 0-60 DB 89 006 tank engine and wagons, boxed 2950 (1)

Corgi Major diecast Ford Tilt Cab "H" Series with detachable trailer, No.1137 & Carrimore Low-Loader, No.1100 (x2), all in poor boxes and Simon Snorkel Fire Engine, boxed No.1127 (4)

Cartier 'Must de Cartier' white metal lighter with engine turned decoration, numbered 82916S.Overall good condition. A few scuffs along the edges and some light surface scratching. This is a gas lighter and is functioning

Hornby O Gauge 0-4-0 clockwork BR black early emblem Type 40 tank engine, boxed and one other loose (2)

20th Century Design - three contemporary Italian toughened glass and engine turned chrome graduated occasional tables, stamped to chrome support, possibly Tonelli Design 'Farniente' model (3)

A COLLECTION OF VARIOUS DIECAST MODELSIncluding planes, cars, trucks and ships, loose and boxed models, including Corgi, Vanguards and Atlas fire engine models.

Model railways. Miscellaneous Hornby and Tri-ang OO gauge railways, including The Princess Royal and Princess Elizabeth locomotives and tenders, an R.352 BR Class 52 Western Diesel engine, boxed, miscellaneous other carriages and rolling stock, some boxed and miscellaneous track, in a leather-bound canvas suitcase

Two Victorian and George V silver sovereign cases, one crested, the other engine turned, 30 and 34mm diam, both Birmingham, maker H B S, 1896 and Dennison Watch Case Co, 1911 One in good condition, the larger example lacking the plunger to open

A Victorian silver lever watch, Thomas Allcock, Sandbach, No 7125, with chain fusée movement, in engine turned case with milled band, 51mm diam, London 1875 Movement running when woundTiny crack on dial between 5 and 6, light wear to case back

1969 Greeves Griffon 250cc two stroke competition engine, factory manufacture, engine embossed GREEVES on cylinder head, engine No GPF1/357, Amal carb 928/L301 correct, with Greeves engine plates NOS

1966 BSA B40 350cc engine/gearbox unit, engine No. B40F ERS 9059 Exchange Replacement Service Appears unusedAbsent rock covers and leversTurns over

A George V silver cigarette case, engine turned and applied with gold monogram, concealed opening, 88 x 90mm, by S Mordan & Co Ltd, London 1921 and a silver book match case, by another, Sheffield 1932, 5oz 7dwt (2) Both in good condition

1960 Triumph 350cc unit 3TA engine/gearbox, OHV, engine No H18543 Missing primary chaincaseTurns over

Matchless 500cc engine, OHV, top end, cylinder head, pushrods and barrel, with complete, new and correct HEPLEX piston Spare barrel used

1980 Kawasaki KZ750, registration No. W473EOX, swing arm frame, frame No. unknown, OHC, four cylinder, 738cc capacity, engine No. KZ750EE18433 (replacement 1983) The KZ 750 is an upgraded 650 and a smaller lighter Z Series machine, this version appearing to have an engine from 1983, originally registered in 1980 and re-registered in 2000, with last V5C in July 2000 Not crash damaged, no old vehicle licence90% complete; Basically sound, for rebuildingMajor losses; Petrol tank, tail light cowl, speedometer, tachometer indicators

An Edwardian silver card case, foliate engraved and engine turned, 88mm h, by J Gloster, Birmingham 1905, a cased set of six silver coffee spoons, Old English Shell pattern, Sheffield 1938 and a silver pencil, 3oz 12dwt excluding pencil (case and 2) Good condition

1960 Norton 350cc Model 50 engine, OHV, engine No R13 90634 71X 88