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Auction: 7012 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Militaria
Lot: 561

The Great War ´Mine Sweeping´ D.S.C. Group of Four to Lieutenant-Commander A.H.L. Terry, Royal Navy a) Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R. (Hallmarks for London 1918) b) 1914-15 Star (Lieut. A.H.L. Terry, R.N.) c) British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. Oakleaves (Lieut. A.H.L. Terry. R.N.), extremely fine, mounted as originally worn (4) Estimate £ 1,300-1,500 D.S.C. London Gazette 24.3.1919 Lieut. Arthur Hugh Lloyd Terry, R.N. ´For services in Minelaying between 1 July and 11 November 1918´. The Recommendation states: ´Continuous good service in Command of H.M.S. Ferret of the 20th Flotilla and also H.M.S. Prince. Took part in practically all minelaying operations carried out by the Flotilla and showed great zeal on all occasions of trying conditions of weather in remaining with the rest of the Flotilla although his ship was far smaller than the remainder.´ M.I.D. London Gazette 23.5.1917 Lieut. A.H.L. Terry, R.N. (Sloop Nasturtium) Lieutenant-Commander A.H.L. Terry, D.S.C., commissioned Midshipman Royal Navy, 15.5.1908; Sub-Lieutenant 15.8.1911; Lieutenant (Awarded the Ryder Memorial Prize), 15.8.1913; posted H.M.S. Iron Duke, March 1914; posted H.M.S. Sheldrake (Destroyer), 13.7.1915; serving in the Sloop Nasturtium, engaged in mine sweeping duties in the central Mediterranean, when she struck a mine and sank, 27.4.1916 (7 ratings killed); Officer Commanding P 52, 14.12.1916; Officer Commanding H.M.S. Stour (Destroyer), 10.6.1917; Officer Commanding H.M.S. Ferret (Destroyer), 26.9.1917, ´In February 1918 the 20th (Minelaying) Flotilla was formed at Immingham from a variety of destroyers of various classes, including three ´Acherons´, the Ariel (Lieutenant Rothera), Sandfly (Lieutenant-Commander E.H. Dauglish) and the Ferret (Lieutenant A.H.L. Terry). The Flotilla´s main duties were to lay mines inside the enemy´s swept channels..... The destroyers were fitted out with minerails on sponsons aft, with winches, and were equipped to carry forty ´H2´ mines and sinkers. They also laid ´M sinkers´, the first magnetic mines off Zeebrugge.´ (Article included in lot refers); On the night of the 28th March 1918, in heavy seas, the 20th Flotilla captured and sank three German armed outpost trawlers (the Scharbeutz, Mars, and Polarstern) in a sweep of the Heliogland Bight. Three Officers and sixty-nine ratings were taken prisoner of war. It was not always a success however, ´Not surprisingly in extremely hazardous work of this nature, losses, when they occurred, were heavy. The Sandfly was on one occasion rammed by the Telemachus in thick fog and her boiler room flooded.... The biggest disaster the Flotilla suffered was on the night of 2nd-3rd August when they ran into an unsuspected German minefield. The Vehement, fifth ship in line, struck a mine and her forward magazine detonated blowing her bow section asunder. She was taken in tow by the Abdiel but while this was in progress the Ariel also struck a mine. Again a magazine blew up and in fifteen minutes the little ship had sunk. (Article included in lot refers); posted Officer Commanding H.M.S. Prince, 24.9.1919; Officer Commanding H.M.S. Southampton (Cruiser), 1919-21; posted as Interpreter and Intelligence Officer on the Staff of the C-in-C Mediterranean, H.M.S. Iron Duke, 1922-23; Lieutenant-Commander 15.8.1921; retired 1926; died 1929.

Sold for
£1,300