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Auction: 23113 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 362

The campaign group of three awarded to Stoker Petty Officer W. J. Dunaway, Royal Navy, who was killed in action at the Battle of Jutland when H.M.S. Invincible was blown apart

1914-15 Star (305131. W. J. Dunaway. S.P.O., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (305131 W. J. Dunaway. S.P.O. R.N.), good very fine (3)

William James Dunaway was born at Portsmouth on 24 March 1884 and was a labourer when he joined the Royal Navy on 5 October 1903 as a Stoker 2nd Class. He qualified as a Stoker Petty Officer in 1910. Prior to the Great War he served in a variety of vessels before joining Invincible on 3 August 1914, one day before War was declared. Dunaway would have been present at Invincible's successes in 1914 at the Battle of Heligoland Bight, where she played a minor role, and at the Battle of the Falkland Islands, where she and her sister ship, Inflexible, sank the armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau almost without loss to themselves.

Dunaway was killed in action at the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916, when the armour of one of Invincible's gun turrets was penetrated, causing her to be blown in half by a magazine explosion amidships and sink within 90 seconds with the loss of all but six of her crew of 1,032 officers and ratings.

Dr Innes McCartney, a Nautical Archaeologist, describes the destruction of Invincible;

'As the world's first battle cruiser, HMS Invincible was by any measure a revolutionary and important warship. All big-gun armament and turbine propulsion marked her out as one of the ships that led the dreadnought revolution. Her destruction at the climax of the Battle of Jutland, along with all but six of her crew of 1,031 was captured by photography and represents some of the most haunting images of the First World War. As a shipwreck, her remains too are no less stirring and emotive, while providing a valuable archaeological resource from the era of the dreadnoughts.

The actual clash of the two battle fleets at Jutland lasted only a few minutes before the heavily outnumbered German High Seas Fleet retired. But during this action Invincible was the lead British ship. At the short range of 9,000 yards, she was targeted by her enemies and just like the two other battle cruisers Indefatigable and Queen Mary destroyed earlier in the battle, she blew up in a massive conflagration. The explosion engulfed the entire ship and sunk it in less than a minute, giving little chance for any of her crew to escape.'

Dunaway is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial; sold together with copied research.


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Sold for
£350

Starting price
£170