Dix Noonan Webb
Lot 135
Pair: Officers’ Steward Second Class G. A. Harvey, Royal Navy, who served in H.M.S. Champion at the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916 1914-15 Star (L.7630. G. A. Harvey. O.S.2., R.N.); Victory Medal 1914-19 (L.7630 G. A. Harvey. O.S.2. R.N.) very fine 1914-15 Star (J.32644, J. E. Gascoyne, Boy.1., R.N.) attempted erasure of rate, nearly very fine Pair: Lieutenant H. E. F. Ralph, Canadian Forces, who was gassed on the Western Front on 18 August 1917 British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. H. E. F. Ralph.); together with a Southend-on-Sea Education Committee bronze medal for Regular Attendance, the reverse impressed ‘Harold Ralph 1905’; and five Canadian Masonic and Veterans badges, one in silver engraved ‘Corp. H. Ralph, Capt.’, very fine (5) £70-£90 --- George Albert Harvey was born in Wood Green, Middlesex, on 24 November 1895, and joined the Royal Navy for the duration of hostilities as an Officers’ Steward on 20 October 1915. He served in H.M.S. Champion from 8 December 1915 to 8 February 197, and was present in her at the battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916. He was shore demobilised on 7 March 1919. James Edward Gascoyne was born in Edmonton, Middlesex, on 6 March 1898 and joined the Royal Navy as a Boy Second Class on 30 October 1914. He served during the Great War in H.M.S. Falmouth from 22 March 1915 to 26 August 1916, and was present in her at the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916, where she fired a total of 175 shells during the battle, the most of any British light cruiser. Gascoyne was also present in Falmouth when she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-66 on the afternoon of 19 August 1916. Shortly after she was struck the armed trawler Cooksin went alongside and took off all the men not required to work the ship. Limping her way back to port at a speed of 2 knots, she was torpedoed again the following morning, this time by U-63, and sunk off Flamborough Head, Yorkshire. Remarkably no one was killed in the attacks, but one man later died of his injuries. Advanced Leading Seaman on 6 February 1919, he was was shore discharged, time expired, on 6 March 1928. Harold Edmund Flower Ralph was born in Essex on 19 August 1887, and having emigrated to Canada attested for the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force at Toronto on 12 April 1915. Commissioned Second Lieutenant on 20 January 1917, he served during the Great War with the 18th Battalion on the Western Front from 30 April 1917, and was admitted to the 20th General Hospital suffering from the effects of Gas on 18 August 1917. Repatriated to the U.K., he was discharged on medical grounds on 30 November 1918, and died in Toronto on 13 October 1963.
