A Great War Gallipoli landings D.S.M. awarded to Chief Yeoman of the Signals A. J. Chatwin, Royal Navy, who, under sniper and shellfire, undertook gallant signal work ashore on ‘S’ Beach

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (156109 A. J. Chatwin, C.Y.S., H.M.S. Cornwallis, 25-26 April 1915), an official but later impressed issue, good very fine £300-400

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.M. London Gazette 16 August 1915 - one of only 24 D.S.Ms awarded specifically for the Gallipoli landings.

Alfred John Chatwin was born in Dover, Kent, in April 1875 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in July 1890. Advanced to Chief Yeoman of the Signals in December 1906, and awarded the L.S. & G.C. Medal in April 1908, he was serving in the cruiser H.M.S. Bacchante on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914.

Having then removed to battleship the Cornwallis at the end of the same year, he was embarked for Gallipoli, where, on the morning of 25 April 1915, he distinguished himself during the landing of the 2nd Battalion, South Wales Borderers on ‘S’ Beach or, more precisely, at a point near the almost sheer bluff known as De Totts Battery. The latter was quickly scaled by the combined military and naval force and, after a sharp fight, the crest of the position was taken, along with two lines of Turkish trenches, but, as the assault force paused before striking inland, it came under an extremely hot and accurate fire from Turkish batteries on the Asiatic and European sides of the Strait.

Here, then, the moment Chatwin, the senior signal warrant officer, at once leapt to an exposed position on the front of the captured battery and signalled, for a long period, the various positions of the Turkish artillery. Although he was under heavy shrapnel and sniper fire all the while he was exposed, he never paused in his determination to get messages through. Captain Davidson, the commanding officer of Cornwallis, who accompanied the landing, attributed Chatwin’s gallantry to the saving of many lives, and he was mentioned in his despatch and awarded the D.S.M.

Chatwin was still serving in the Cornwallis at the time of her loss in January 1917, when she was hit by three torpedoes from the U-32, a few miles off Malta - most of the crew, including Chatwin, were rescued by the destroyer Beagle. He returned home to an appointment in Pembroke I and remained ashore until being demobilised in April 1919.