Pair: Acting Leading Stoker A. J. Dingle, Royal Navy, served on H.M.S. Vindictive in the Zeebrugge Raid, participating in the V.C. ballot for that action

British War and Victory Medals (S.S.114220 Act. L. Sto., R.N.) good very fine (2) £200-260

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals relating to the Zeebrugge and Ostend Raids, 1918.

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Alfred James Dingle was born in West Ham, London on 9 June 1895. A Barman by occupation, he enlisted into the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in June 1913. He served on the battleship H.M.S. Colossus, November 1913-March 1918. He was advanced to Stoker 1st Class in July 1914 and saw action at the battle of Jutland, 31 May/1 June 1916. During March/April 1918 he was on the books of H.M.S. Hindustan but served aboard H.M.S. Vindictive in the Zeebrugge Raid, 23 April 1918, and is recorded as having participated in the ballot for a V.C. for that operation (London Gazette 23 July 1918).

In The Western Morning News of 29 April 1918 Dingle gave his account of the action under the heading, ‘Alf Dingle’s Log in the Vindictive’s Stokehold’ ‘... Last Friday he walked up to his home in Plymouth looking so unconcerned that his relatives never conceived that as he and his officers and other comrades have described St. George’s-day operations at Zeebrugge he had been through “hell”. He had little opportunity to send a message to his father and mother .... he reasoned as many do who are unaccustomed to the sending of telegrams that a wire would frighten [his] mother .... My pigeon was the boiler room of the Vindictive .... we were in [the] charge of Ch. Art. Eng. Campbell, R.N. who was formerly a merchant service engineer, and must have been specially selected for the job. He’s a splendid fellow. At the start he told us what we were in for and that before we had finished we should have to feed the fires like mad. .... We were all strong fellows, the whole 13 of us. .... The Vindictive got to Zeebrugge; it was just before midnight when we got alongside the Mole. We had gas masks on then and were stoking furiously all the time with the Art-Eng backing us up in the best of spirits. Nobody could have been downhearted while was there. .... I didn’t see what was going on on deck and none of us knew at any moment when it would be all up with us. .... Well there we were bump, bump, bump against the Mole for I don’t know how long, and all the time shells shrieking and crashing, rockets going up ... added to which were the cries and shrieks of wounded officers and men. Someone came down and said the Marines were getting it hot, and the seamen too. Several times Capt. Carpenter came down below and told us how things were going on. .... In the boiler room our exciting time was after the worst was over on shore. All of a sudden the telegraph rang down “Full speed ahead” and then there was commotion. The artificer-engineer shouted, “Now for it; don’t forget what you have to do - 21 knots if she never does it again. In a minute or two the engines were going full pelt. ....When we off Dover the engineer-commander came down into the boiler room and asked Art-Eng. Campbell “What have you got to say about your men?” He replied, I’m not going to say anything for them or anything against them; but if I was going to h---- tomorrow night, I would have the same men with me.’

With copied service paper, newspaper extract and other research including a ‘Dingle Family’ history.