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Auction: 17003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 505

Victory Medal 1914-19 (J. 23151 W. J. Hollerton, Sig., R.N.), polished, nearly very fine

William James Hollerton was born at Douglas, Isle of Man on 7 July 1896. The register of National School Admissions reveals he was a seaman's orphan and that his mother, Kate, was and 'honest and sober' charwoman. He joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in February 1913 and was serving in the monitor H.M.S. Severn as an Ordinary Signalman on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914.

Hollerton remained actively employed in Severn until discharged due to a head injury in September 1916. Severn's memorable part in the East Africa campaign needs little elaboration here - it is vividly described in E. Keble Chatterton's history Severn's Saga. Suffice it to say her shallow draught and 6-inch guns enabled her to play a vital role in the destruction of the Konigsberg in the Rufiji Delta in July 1915; her crew also came ashore as Bluejackets in the same period, Hollerton's service record noting he was among them.

As revealed by Board of Trade records, he next joined the Mercantile Marine, the reverse of his identity certificate bearing a photograph of him wearing his 'King's Badge'; he is believed to have settled in Victoria, Australia and to have died there in 1980, aged 84 years; sold with copied research.


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Sold for
£40