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Auction: 24002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 112

Sold by Order of a Direct Descendent

Five: Captain G. A. M. Paul, Royal Navy who served with the Battleship Superb during the Battle of Jutland

1914-15 Star (S. Lt. G. A. M. Paul, R.N.), the last letter of surname lightly struck; British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. G. A. M. Paul. R.N.); Defence and War Medals 1939-45, the Great War awards sometime silvered, light contact marks, very fine (5)

George Anson Moncrieff Paul was born at Kent on 31 July 1895, the son of Katherine and Brigadier-General Ernest Paul. Joining the training establishment on 15 May 1908 he was commissioned Midshipman on 15 January 1913 with a posting to Conqueror. From there he was sent for the first time to the battleship Superb, part of the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron.

Paul was promoted Sub-Lieutenant on 15 January 1915 and left Superb for a brief spell with Agincourt in July of that year, returning to Superb on 22 April 1916. He saw action with her at the climactic Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916 with the 4th Battle Squadron. Superb was the 11th ship in the line of Admiral Jellicoe's Grand Fleet which crossed the German 'T' at the end of the Run to the North. She first targeted the crippled light cruiser Wiesbaden claiming several hits before shifting her fire to the battlecruiser Derfflinger. In total she fired 54 of her 12-inch shells although none of those aimed at Derfflinger hit their mark.

Promoted Lieutenant on 15 May 1917 Paul was transferred away from the Battleship the next year on 9 August 1917. In this rank he saw further service with the M-class destroyer Napier and later Tomahawk which he left in 1921. A series of courses at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich that same year prepared Paul for staff-work which he took to on 27 January 1923, being promoted Lieutenant-Commander two years later on 15 February 1925.

Joining the Staff of the Chief Inspector of Naval Ordnance at Woolwich he was to serve in a series of similar positions for the next decade. These appointments culminated in the role of Deputy Inspector of Torpedoes and Mines in 1937 and retirement with the rank of Commander in 1938 during which he worked with the Research Department at Woolwich as a civilian. Paul was noted on the 1939 census living at 7 Abbotsbury Road, Kensington as a Naval Officer.

On the outbreak of the Second World War he returned to duty with the Naval Ordnance Inspection Department with the rank of Commander. Appointed Inspector of Naval Ordnance (Bath) on 30 March 1941 he was granted the rank of Captain while undertaking the role. The end of the war saw him posted to Woolwich with the same rank and finally he was appointed a Naval Member Ordnance Board on 9 April 1947.

Retiring on 4 November 1950 Paul was confirmed in the rank of Captain, he left Kensington and settled in Hampshire where he died at Liphook in January 1978; sold together with copied service papers.

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Sold for
£220

Starting price
£240