The important Great War Q-ship operations D.S.O. and Bar group of five awarded to Captain F. H. Grenfell, Royal Navy, who commanded the ‘The splendid Penshurst’ in several actions and was second only to Gordon Campbell, V.C., in terms of U-boats destroyed

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., with Second Award Bar, silver-gilt and enamel; 1914 Star (Lieut. F. H. Grenfell, R.N., Transport Staff); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. F. H. Grenfell, R.N.); France, Croix de Guerre 1914-1917, minor enamel damage to wreaths on the first, otherwise good very fine and better (5) £12000-15000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte.

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D.S.O. London Gazette 1 January 1917.

Bar to D.S.O. London Gazette 23 March 1917.

French Croix de Guerre London Gazette 2 November 1917.

Francis Henry Grenfell was in Hampshire in December 1874 and entered the Royal Navy as a cadet in Britannia in January 1889. Advanced to Sub. Lieutenant September 1894 and to Lieutenant in April 1897, he became a physical fitness instructor, but was placed on the Retired List at his own request in December 1905, when he was given the rank of Lieutenant-Commander.

Having in the interim been employed as an Inspector of Schools for the Board of Education, he was recalled on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914 and served as a Transport Officer at Marseilles before being appointed C.O. of the armed merchant cruiser Cedric in November of the same year, in the rank of Commander.

Then in December 1915, with his transfer to Cyclops on ‘special service’, he commenced his remarkable career in “Mystery Ships”, namely with his appointment to the command of the Penshurst (a.k.a. Q-7), who, with her three masts, low freeboard and funnel aft, resembled a tank steamer (or oil tanker).

Described by Keble Chatterton as ‘a courteous and charming country gentleman whose shy manner concealed an exceptionally gallant spirit’, Grenfell had to endure nearly a year of unrewarded patrols before being able to orchestrated his first “kill”, the interim seeing him and his crew master their new roles off Ireland, Scotland and in the English Channel. And among his officers was Lieutenant Cedric Naylor, R.N.R., who became one of the most decorated Naval Officers of the Great War, winning three D.S.Os and two D.S.Cs, the whole services in Penshurst.

30 November 1916 - destruction of the UB-19

Grenfell first went into action in Penshurst in November 1916, when she sank the UB-19 on the 30th in a textbook Q-ship action, luring her prey to within 250 yards range after sending off her “panic party”. Grenfell takes up the story:

‘I passed the word to the guns that she [the UB-19] was coming round to our starboard quarter, and then slithered across the deck and had another spy-hole cut in the screen in a moment. Then I saw her coming round the stern, and when she was on the quarter and the guns were all bearing on her I leapt for the signal bell and signalled ‘open fire’.

Inside ten seconds the 3-pounder got off its first shot, which carried a man clean off the conning tower; the second immediately afterwards went through her engine room. The 6-pounder and the 12-pounder took up the game almost at once, and the shells began to burst all over the sub. We hit her mostly in the conning tower and the after part. Shells burst all along her water line and the 12-pounder Lyddite did grand work. Most of the conning tower was blown clean away, and one shell blew a great sheet of deck plating spinning into the air. We could see the men running on her deck, and falling or diving overboard. A knot gathered at the fore and where the shells were less numerous. It was a grand sight - and I must admit I mafficked [celebrate, as in Mafeking Day] - I had to run down and shake old Naylor, at the 12-pounder - by the hand.

All this time the sub was going ahead towards our boars, and we learned afterwards that our second shot, besides preventing her submerging, also prevented them stopping engines. The submarine was now partly shrouded by the smoke of the bursting shells, and a shout went up that the men on her were waving in token of surrender. I stopped the firing, but as I was mindful of Admiral Colville’s injunction to me when we commissioned not to take any chances, but to go on firing until the sub. sank, I commenced firing again. A very little more, however, convinced me that all was up with her.’

Grenfell duly returned to Portland, with 13 survivors from UB-19’s crew. He was awarded the D.S.O., which insignia he received at Buckingham Palace on 14 February 1917.

14 January 1917 - destruction of the UB-37

Meanwhile, in January 1917, Grenfell sighted the UB-37, Kapitain Lieutnant Günther. The U-Boat opened fire immediately and Grenfell ordered the usual “panic party” tactics to be carried out. Slowly the UB-37 closed in until she was 700 yards off the Q-ship’s starboard bow and twice in succession Penshurst was hit by shell fire and several members of her crew, who were waiting in concealment for the order to open fire, were killed or wounded. At first Grenfell anticipated that Günther would take UB-37 around to the Q-ship’s boats off Penshurst’s port quarter and that such action would afford the opportunity of decreasing the range, but it soon became obvious that Günther had no intention of closing in and Grenfell decided to reveal his true colours and commence an action.

At 4.24 p.m. Penshurst hoisted her White Ensign and her apparently deserted decks became alive with activity as the screens concealing her armament were lowered and her guns opened a rapid fire on the submarine. The first shell from Penshurst’s 12-pounder struck the base of UB-37‘s conning tower and when the black smoke which resulted from the violent explosion had cleared away, it was observed that a part of the U-Boat’s conning tower was missing. A second shell caused further damage to UB-37‘s hull and at least four more hits were registered on her conning tower before she sank to the bottom with all hands. To ensure the U-Boat’s destruction, Penshurst steamed over the position where she had disappeared and dropped depth-charges before returning to Portland. There were no survivors.

Grenfell was recommended for the C.B., no doubt as a result of his senior rank, but was instead awarded a Bar to his D.S.O., which insignia he received at Buckingham Palace on 16 November 1918.

22 February 1917 - U-84 severely damaged

Just over a month later, two days after an inconclusive action 20 February, Penshurst engaged the U-84 off the south coast of Ireland. Having avoided a torpedo attack, Grenfell and his men achieved several hits, causing U-84 significant damage and wounding members of her crew - the U-boat managed to limp back to Germany on the surface, where Admiral Scheer described her survival as a miracle.

Following the actions of 20 and 22 February 1917, he was specially promoted to Captain, presumably in lieu of receiving another D.S.O.

On 8 March Grenfell fought another surface action with a U-Boat at the Eastern end of the English Channel. Both vessels were badly damaged, Penshurst requiring a major refit. And it was at this juncture that he was appointed to the Staff of the Director of Anti-Submarine Defence, in which capacity he would have kept in touch with Penshurst’s activities and been among the first to hear of her demise in December 1917.

Demobilised in November 1918, in order to return to his appointment on the Board of Education, the gallant Grenfell died in April 1946; sold with copied research.