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Auction: 17002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 182

Sold by Order of a Direct Descendant

A rare Great War submariner's group of three awarded to Engine Room Artificer 2nd Class G. W. Smith, Royal Navy, who was lost in the D2 when she was rammed and sunk by a German patrol craft off Wester Ems in November 1914

1914-15 Star (271616 G. W. Smith, E.R.A. II, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (271616 G. W. Smith, E.R.A. 2, R.N.), together with the recipient's Memorial Plaque 1914-18 (George William Smith), extremely fine (4)

George William Smith was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire on 18 April 1883 and entered the Royal Navy as an acting Engine Room Artificer (E.R.A.) 4th Class in May 1904. Having been advanced to E.R.A. 2nd Class, he joined the submarine branch with an appointment in the depot ship Bonaventure in August 1912.

On the outbreak of hostilities, Smith was serving in D2, a submarine of the 8th Flotilla based at Harwich and commanded by Lieutenant-Commander A. G. Jameson, R.N. D2 quickly saw action, lending support to the British fleet in the action off Heligoland Bight in late August 1914. Three months later Jameson was washed overboard and drowned.

Lieutenant-Commander C. Head, R.N., having assumed command, D2 departed Harwich on a patrol on 24 November 1914 but nothing was heard from her again. It later transpired that she had been rammed and sunk by a German patrol craft off Wester Ems on the 25th. There were no survivors from her complement of 25 men; sold with copied service record.


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Sold for
£600