A rare Baltic 1919 operations D.S.O. group of six awarded to Commander J. Harrison, Royal Navy

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel; Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Somaliland 1908-10 (Lieut. J. Harrison, R.N., H.M.S. Philomel); Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Persian Gulf 1909-14 (Lieut. J. Harrison, R.N., H.M.S. Philomel); 1914-15 Star (Lt. Comr. J. Harrison, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Lt. Commr. J. Harrison, R.N.), mounted as worn, generally very fine or better (6) £2500-3000

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 8 March 1920:

‘For services in the Baltic.’

The original recommendation states:

‘For services in H.M.S. Vortigern in operations at Riga, 24 October to 23 November 1919. This officer is recommended for his great assistance generally and for his zeal and enthusiasm in carrying out any duties, detached or otherwise, that he was called upon to perform.’



Julian Harrison was born in Newcastle in October 1886 and entered Britannia as a Cadet in May 1901. Advanced to Lieutenant in August 1907, he served in the cruiser H.M.S. Philomel from July 1909 to October 1911, in which period he was present in operations off Somaliland (Medal & clasp) and in the Persian Gulf (Medal & clasp), and he was serving in the same rank in the battleship Monarch on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914.

Having then been advanced to Lieutenant-Commander in August 1915, he removed to his first command, the destroyer Itchen, that October, in which capacity he remained actively employed until removing to another destroyer command, the Martial, in March 1916. Subsequently present at Jutland, when the Martial formed part of the 1st Division of the 11th Destroyer Flotilla, and escorted the 4th Battle Squadron, Harrison removed to his final wartime appointment, the Vortigern, in January 1918.

And it was for his command of the Vortigern in the Baltic in the period October to November 1919 that he was awarded his D.S.O.,which insignia he received at Buckingham Palace in November 1920 - among other activities the Vortigern participated in the operation that led to the capture of the enemy destroyer Avtroil in the Gulf of Finland, on which occasion she provided the boarding party.

Harrison was placed on the Retired List in the rank of Commander at his own request in October 1926, when he departed to Tanganyika to take up employment as a Marine Officer in the Railway Department. He died in May 1937; sold with a quantity of original correspondence regarding the recipient’s command of the Teal on the Yangtze in 1921, when he was commended for the rescue of a French gunboat.