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Auction: 22102 - Orders, Decorations and Medals e-Auction VI - e-Auction
Lot: 291

Four: Private E. G. Surridge, Royal Marines Light Infantry

1914-15 Star (Ch.10279 E. G. Surridge, Pte. R.M.L.I.); British War and Victory Medals (Ch.10279 Pte. E. G. Surridge. R.M.L.I.); Royal Fleet Reserve L.S. & G.C., G.V.R. (Ch.10279 B.894 E. G. Surridge. Pte. R.F.R.), good very fine (4)

Ernest George Surridge was born on 16 February 1880 at Woolwich and enlisted in the Royal Marines Light Infantry on 31 May 1898.

He served during the Great War in Bacchante from the 2 August 1914-7 January 1916 when he transferred to the Royal Naval Air Service.

At the outbreak of the war in August 1914, Bacchante became the flagship of the 7th Cruiser Squadron, tasked with patrolling the Broad Fourteens of the North Sea in support of a force of destroyers and submarines based at Harwich which protected the eastern end of the English Channel from German warships attempting to attack the supply route between England and France. During the Battle of Heligoland Bight on 28 August, the ship was flagship of Rear Admiral Henry Campbell commanding Cruiser Force 'C', in reserve off the Dutch coast, and saw no action. After the sinking of Bacchante's three sister ships while patrolling the Broad Fourteens on 22 September, she, and her sister Euryalus, were transferred to the 12th Cruiser Squadron to escort ships between England and Gibraltar in early October.

Bacchante and Euryalus were transferred to Egypt in late January 1915 to reinforce the defences of the Suez Canal although the Turkish raid on the Suez Canal had already been repulsed by the time that they arrived in February. By this time the preliminary bombardments of the Turkish defences of the Dardanelles had already occurred and the sisters were transferred north in March as the Turks east of the Canal proved to be reasonably quiet.

During the landing at Anzac Cove during the Battle of Gallipoli on 25 April, Bacchante suppressed Turkish artillery positions at Gaba Tepe after touching her bow the beach for a better position from which to engage the guns. She provided fire support for forces near Anzac Cove for the next several months, particularly during the Third attack on Anzac Cove on 19 May when she, together with three pre-dreadnought battleships, effectively suppressed the Turkish artillery assigned to support the attack. On 28 May Bacchante and Kennet destroyed enemy shipping in Budrum harbour. Three months later the cruiser bombarded Turkish troops during the Battle of Lone Pine on 6 August and Battle of Chunuk Bair 7-9 August. She was not present when the Allies began to evacuate Gallipoli in December, but her Captain, Algernon Boyle, commanded the evacuation at Anzac Cove.

On the 5 March 1918 Surridge received a prize bounty for operations at Heliogland on 25 February 1918. Following demobilisation he joined the Royal Fleet Reserve being awarded his L.S. & G.C. in May 1925. Surridge died in London in December 1936.


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Sold for
£160

Starting price
£40