Previous Lot Next Lot

Auction: 7012 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Militaria
Lot: 781

A Great War 1914 Naval Casualty Group of Three to Stoker 1st Class J.W. Merret, Royal Navy, Lost in H.M.S. Good Hope When She Was Sunk at the Battle of Coronel With All Hands, 1st November 1914 1914-15 Star (SS.101000, J.W. Merrett, Sto. 1, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (SS.101000 J.W. Merrett. Sto. 1.R.N.), extremely fine, with Great War Bronze Memorial Plaque ´Joseph William Merrett´, Parchment Memorial Scroll, named medal enclosure slip, Roll of Honour card for those lost in H.M.S. Good Hope, named to recipient, signed by Mrs. P. Franklin, the widow of the Captain of the ship, and a photograph of H.M.S. Good Hope, the medals, plaque and scroll are housed in a glass fronted frame (lot) Estimate £ 450-550 Joseph William Merrett was a Stoker 1st Class serving in H.M.S. Good Hope as part of 6th Cruiser Squadron South Atlantic, 1914. She was an Armoured Cruiser, which Rear-Admiral Cradock took as his Flag Ship for the pursuit of the Admiral Graf Spee in November 1914. The other ships in his squadron were the Monmouth (Armoured Cruiser); Glasgow (Light Cruiser); and Oranto (Armed Merchant Cruiser). The British ships were more lightly armed, and slower than the German squadron which they were ´hunting´. The German force consisting of the Admiral Graf Spee, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Leipzig and the Dresden. At 1930 hours, 1.1.1914, the two forces engaged at the battle of Coronel, with the Germans opening fire first. The 3rd salvo from the Scharnhorst hit the Good Hope, causing a sheet of flame forward and knocking out her forward 9.2. inch gun. Both Cradock´s Flag ship and the Monmouth were hit over 30 times, with the British reply being fairly ineffectual. At 1950 hours the Good Hope suffered a magazine explosion, the crippled ship then drifted out of sight of the main battle, sinking shortly afterwards. There were no survivors, and the British Navy lost over 1600 crew that day, including Merrett who is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

Sold for
£750