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Auction: 24002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 177

A Second World War 'Atlantic Convoys' D.S.C. group of seven awarded to Warrant Engineer W. E. D. Cater, Royal Navy

Distinguished Service Cross, reverse officially dated '1943', hallmarks for London 1942; British War Medal 1914-20 (M.21999 W. E. D. Cater. Boy. Art. R.N.); Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-39 (M.21999 W. E. D. Cater. C.E.R.A. 2. R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939-45; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R. (M.21999 W. E. D. Cater. E.R.A, 1. H.M.S. Decoy), minor pitting, light polishing, very fine (7)

D.S.C. London Gazette 2 June 1943, the original Recommendation states:

'For gallantry or outstanding service in the face of the enemy, or for zeal, patience and cheerfulness in dangerous waters, and for setting an example of wholehearted devotion to duty, without which the high tradition of the Royal Navy could not have been upheld.'

William Edwin Drew Cater was born in Plymouth, Devon on 16 January 1901 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy Artificer in July 1916. He saw no active service, however, attending the training establishment Indus at Devonport for the remainder of the Great War. Between the wars he served in the gunboat Gannet on the Yangtze, as well as a tour of duty off Palestine in the mid-to-late 1930s and was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in April 1934.

By the outbreak of hostilities, Cater was serving in the Mediterranean as a Chief Engine Room Artificer 2nd Class in the sloop H.M.S. Aberdeen. Recalled to home waters, she was deployed on convoy escort duties in the English Channel and S.W. Approaches, prior to transferring to Rosyth for similar duties in the North Sea and N.W. Approaches. Subsequently allocated to the Atlantic run, Aberdeen later still joined the 41st Escort Group for convoy duties between the U.K. and Freetown.

Cater came ashore from the Aberdeen in January 1942, when he was appointed a Temporary Acting Warrant Engineer, and it was for his subsequent services in the destroyer Mansfield that he was awarded his D.S.C. in the Birthday Honours List of 1943. Commanded at this time by Lieutenant-Commander L. C. Hill, O.B.E., R.N.R., Mansfield was on loan to the Royal Canadian Navy and operated out of Halifax and St. John's on the Atlantic run.

On 17 March 1943, Mansfield carried out notable rescue work during Atlantic convoy HX-229, picking up 61 survivors from the Dutch merchantman Terkoelei, which had been torpedoed by the U-631, and a further 16 survivors from an American merchantman which had been torpedoed by the U-600.

Mansfield was paid-off in November 1943 and Cater next joined the R.N. barracks H.M.S. Asbury, a holding base for British naval personnel, north of New York in New Jersey. Having then returned home in the following year - and received his D.S.C. an investiture in February 1945 - he ended the war with an appointment at the reserve ship base Imperieuse in Devonport. He died in October 1954.

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Sold for
£1,300

Starting price
£800