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Auction: 23111 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 812

The emotive Mercantile Marine War Medal and Memorial Plaque awarded to Fireman E.H. Jordan, who was drowned in tragic circumstances when the Hospital Ship H.M.A.T. Warilda was torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel by the German submarine UC-49

Mercantile Marine War Medal (Edward H. Jordan); Great War Bronze Memorial Plaque (Edward Homer Jordan), some polish residue, otherwise about extremely fine (2)

Edward Homer Jordan, a native of Southampton and aged 37, was lost (along with 122 other members of the ship's company, patients and staff) when His Majesty's Australian Transport Warilda was hit by a single torpedo by the submarine UC-49 at 01.35 on 3 August 1918. Built in 1911, the 7,713-ton vessel commenced the Great War as a troopship before being converted to a hospital ship, ferrying staff and wounded personnel from France to the United Kingdom.
On her last - and fatal - voyage she was sailing from Le Havre to Southampton with a full complement of crew, doctors, nurses, and over 600 wounded soldiers; it was a journey she had already made over 180 times during the war and was painted white with prominent red crosses on her sides to make it obvious of her humanitarian mission. In addition to the wounded, her passengers included a number of young ladies from the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps and Voluntary Aid Detachment with the most prominent of these being the Deputy Chief Controller of the Q.M.A.A.C., Mrs. Violet Long, on her way back to England from working with the American Expeditionary Force. The torpedo struck Warilda aft on the starboard quarter, disabling the starboard propeller but flooding the engine room and blowing away the steering gear: this prevented the port engine from being stopped and meant the ship started circling at full speed, which in turn meant the launching of lifeboats became a difficult - and indeed extremely hazardous - task.
Though there are many eye-witness accounts to that tragic night, surely one of the most moving is that of Sister Daisy Hobbs of the Territorial Force Nursing Service:

When we arrived on board we found out that two V.A.Ds were making their way home from France, and Mrs Long, Commander of the W.A.A.Cs and her orderly. We consisted of two sisters of the T.F.N.S. and myself, making a number of seven altogether. After dinner we went to see the wounded officers and men to help them talk, oh… What an interesting time we had, the thrilling adventures which made us glow with admiration and filled us with a longing to do more for these men who willingly gave their lives for us. How time flies, we helped fix life belts until the signal for “lights out” made us seek our cabin… We were awakened by two terrible crashes and we felt the ship vibrating violently, the sound of running feet, and someone opened our cabin door and said, “To your boat at once sisters, we have been torpedoed"…we made our way to our boat which had been pointed out to us the previous evening. It was so dark that we could not see, only felt some hands passing us along, while the wounded men who could help themselves lined ready to get into their boats, the stretcher cases were in the hands of the Medical Officers and the orderlies under their supervision did splendid work… We were warned that a number of depth charges were to be sounded, the shock was severe, but we consoled ourselves thinking that we had sunk the Hun. We stopped again to take on board some more survivors, and to our delight we found our friends and listened to their terrible experiences. We were sorry to hear that our friend Mrs Long had been drowned trying to jump from the “Warilda” into the small boat and falling between, became entangled in the ropes, every effort was made to release her but...she must have collapsed and was drawn under by the suction.”

Edward Homer Jordan is remembered on the Tower Hill Memorial in London. Sold with copied paperwork and research.

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Sold for
£150

Starting price
£80