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Auction: 21003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 73

The British War Medal awarded to Leading Seaman J. A. Novice, Royal Navy, who was drowned - along with Field Marshal Kitchener - after the loss of H.M.S. Hampshire on 5 June 1916; his body was one of the few to be washed ashore, suggesting he probably perished in a Carley float whilst attempting to make land

British War Medal 1914-20 (229759 J. A. Novice. L.S. R.N.), good very fine

John Arthur Novice was born on 14 January 1888 at Kensington, London and was an office boy upon joining the Royal Navy on 14 January 1906.

He joined Hampshire on 27 January 1916 and would have served aboard her at the Battle of Jutland. She departed Scapa Flow immediately after the battle, with Lord Kitchener embarked on a diplomatic mission to Russia. She encountered heavy seas, lost her destroyer escort and, about a mile and half off the mainland of Orkney, struck one of several mines that had earlier been laid by the U-75. The detonation holed the ship between her bow and the bridge, and she sank after just 15 minutes. Of the 655 crew and 7 passengers aboard, only 12 crew on two Carley floats managed to reach the shore alive but Novice was not among them; Kitchener and his staff were lost.

It would appear Novice would have found himself in the Carley floats attempting to make land, along with Gunner Jennings. A glimpse of their gallant conduct is to be found in an article published in The Sunday Express of 8 July 1934, as related by a shipmate, Petty Officer Wesson, who spoke of the men singing in order to try to stay alive. Tragically Novice, who was aged 28 did not make it, later being washed ashore. He is buried in a joint grave with 48-year old Seaman C. Carvin, Royal Naval Reserve, in Lyness Cemetery, Hoy, Orkney and is commemorated on the Hampshire Memorial Wall, Orkney.

The Middlesex Chronicle of 15 July 1916 recalled how his father, John Novice of 48 Eve Road, Isleworth '...has the satisfaction of knowing that his son's body has been recovered and buried in the Naval Cemetery in the Island of Hoy, Orkneys'; sold together with copied research.

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Sold for
£180

Starting price
£60