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Auction: 18001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 317

Four: Chief Petty Officer R. W. Dell, Royal Navy

1914-15 Star (J. 2002 R. W. Dell, L.S., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (J. 2002 R. W. Dell, P.O., R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 2nd type (J. 2002 R. W. Dell, P.O., H.M.S. Columbine), mounted as worn, edge bruising and polished, nearly very fine (4)


Reginald Walter Dell was born in Southampton, Hampshire on 10 April 1892 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in July 1908.

An Able Seaman serving aboard the destroyer H.M.S. Greyhound on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he remained similarly employed until coming ashore in January 1917. During this period Greyhound served in the 6th Destroyer Flotilla and performed anti-submarine and counter mining patrols, as well as Dover Barrage defensive patrols. From 22 August to 19 November 1915, along with Mermaid and Racehorse, she provided anti-submarine screen for several operations off the Belgian Coast. In November 1916, she was redeployed to the 7th Destroyer Flotilla on the Humber performing anti-submarine patrols and counter-mining operations off the East Coast of England until the Armistice; she was awarded the battle honour 'Belgian Coast 1915-18'.

Dell next served in the cruiser Caradoc from June 1917 until January 1921; Caradoc was present at the second battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917 and escorted the German High Seas Fleet as it sailed to Scapa Flow on 21 November 1918.

A few days later, Caradoc was ordered to the Baltic Sea to support the Baltic States as they attempted to secure their independence from Russia. Together with her half-sister Cardiff and five destroyers, the ship bombarded Bolshevik positions with 155 6-inch shells east of Reval (Tallinn), Estonia, on 14 December and brought the Russian offensive to a halt after they destroyed the one bridge connecting them with Petrograd. Almost two weeks later, she helped to capture the Russian destroyer Avtroil near Reval on 27 December, which was later turned over to the Estonians. At the beginning of January 1919, Caradoc and her sister Calypso ferried 500 Finnish volunteers from Helsingfors (Helsinki) to Reval and then bombarded the Bolsheviks in conjunction with an Estonian offensive on 4 January.

By 19 April 1919 she was stationed in the Crimea in support of the anti-Bolshevik Army. On 22 April, aerial reconnaissance reported that the Red Army was massing at Kaffa Bay in the town of Vladislovovka. The Greek battleship Lemnos and Caradoc bombarded the town, forcing the Soviet forces to withdraw. Caradoc was then joined by her half-sister Centaur, and the destroyer Parthian, and again bombarded Soviet troops, this time in the village of Parpach. On 2 May, Caradoc and the newly arrived battleship Emperor of India helped to break up a Bolshevik attack. Three months later, she was hit by three 3-inch shells as she engaged Bolshevik coastal artillery at Ochakov. Later that month, she supported an amphibious landing by the Volunteer Army near Odessa. In mid-October, the ship supported a Volunteer Army offensive near Yalta. By April 1920, Caradoc was deployed off the coast of Georgia supporting the Volunteer Army against the Bolsheviks and continued to do so through May. She was withdrawn from Georgia in June in response to the Greek offensives during the Greco-Turkish War and arrived in Istanbul on 18 June 1920.

Dell was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in 1925, the same year in which he was advanced to Chief Petty Officer; sold with copied service record.


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Sold for
£200