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Auction: 22103 - Orders, Decorations and Medals VII - e-Auction
Lot: 188

British War Medal 1914-20 (F.26942 S. Merrett. A.M.1. R.N.A.S.), very fine

Sidney Merrett was born at Caterham, Surrey on 10 November 1889, the son of Thomas and Eliza Merrett. He worked as an electrician prior to enlistment which occurred on 16 March 1917 with the Royal Naval Air Service. Serving at H.M.S. President II until January 1918 he was transferred to the Eastern Mediterranean, likely Mudros, and embarked upon H.M.S. Louvain, formerly the S.S. Dresden. A ship with a strange reputation already as, while sailing under the latter name, it was the vessel from which Rudolph Diesel had disappeared in 1913.

Leaving Malta on 18 January the ship passed through the Corinth Canal beyond which it met its escort, the Colne. The small convoy was sighted by UC-22, a German submarine, late on 20 January. Seeing the escort the commander decided to lay a number of mines in its path before attacking. With this achieved UC-22 struck, its torpedo hit Louvain in the dynamo compartment. She is believed to have sunk in roughly two minutes with a massive loss of life, of some 233 men aboard only 16 survived. This terrible death toll was attributed to a failure with the boats, it seems that the passengers and crew had not been properly instructed in their deployment and were unable to deploy them causing the filled lifeboats to go down with the ship. A formal inquiry stated that: 'All possible precautions against attack had been taken by "Colne", and everything possible was done by her to save life.'. An attempt was made to destroy UC-22 which fired a torpedo at the Colne before withdrawing. Colne made a sweep for survivors but the tiny number reflects how sudden the attack had been and how swiftly the vessel sank.

Merrett was one of those killed during the sinking. He is commemorated upon the Chatham Naval Memorial and was survived by his wife Evelyn who later went on to marry his brother Ernest Merrett; sold together with copied research including service records and Commonwealth War Graves details as well as a copy of the report given by the commander of the Colne and the findings of the inquiry into Louvain's sinking.

Further entitled to the Victory Medal 1914-1919.

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Sold for
£50

Starting price
£30