Eight: Chief Engineer E. J. Davies, Mercantile Marine and Royal Indian Marine, who in the course of an eventful career survived being torpedoed and sunk by enemy submarines in both World Wars. He served during the Great War with the Red Sea Patrol on T. E. Lawrence’s Supply Ship, the Hardinge, and in the Second World War his ship, Vera Radcliffe, was scuttled to become part of the D-Day breakwater complex off Juno Beach

British War Medal 1914-20 (Eng. Lt. E. J. Davies. R.I.M.); Mercantile Marine War Medal 1914-18 (Edmund J. Davies); Victory Medal 1914-19 (Eng. Lt. E. J. Davies. R.I.M.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, 1 clasp, France and Germany; Africa Star, 1 clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45, nearly extremely fine (8) £180-£220

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of Peter Duckers.

View
Collection

Edmund John Davies was born in Machen, Monmouthshire in April 1893. He served as an apprentice engineer on the Brecon-Merthyr Railway before his first appointment at sea as Marine Engineer on the Cardiff steamship Wellington. He is known to have been serving on the SS Parkgate in April 1914 and there is the possibility that he was on board when she was later sunk by gunfire from U-35 en route from Malta to Gibraltar on 4 April 1917. Contemporary movie footage of this action was filmed from U-35 and later shown to German audiences. He was certainly Second Engineer on the SS Tempus when she was torpedoed and sunk by U-53 (Hans Rose) on 19 April 1917, 130 miles NW of Fastnet with the loss of one crew member.

Appointed to the Royal Indian Marine in October 1917, Davies was commissioned Engineer Lieutenant and served on the armed merchant cruiser R.I.M.S. Hardinge from November 1917 to July 1918. Famous for its association with T. E. Lawrence, Hardinge was a ship of the Royal Indian Marine in the service of the Royal Navy’s ‘Red Sea Patrol’. Crucial to the success of the Arab revolt, they carried supplies including ammunition, weapons and food to Arab forces on the Arabian coast in the Gulf of Aqaba. As related in his Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence was frequently aboard the Hardinge and on occasion the ship’s warm hospitality was also offered to Feisal:
‘In the early days of the revolt it had been the Hardinge which had been given leisure to play providence to us. Once at Yenbo, Feisal had ridden to the port from the hills on a streaming day of winter, cold, wet, miserable and tired. Linberry had sent a launch ashore, and invited him to the ship where he had found a warm cabin, a peaceful meal, and a bath made ready for him. Afterwards he lay back in an armchair, smoking one of his constant cigarettes, and remarked dreamily to me that he now knew what the furnishing of heaven would be like.’ (The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence refers).

As the Arabs gradually succeeded in gaining full possession of the northern Red Sea regions, the ships of the Red Sea Patrol, including the Hardinge, were withdrawn to service more needed in other parts. With effect from 27 July 1918, Davies was transferred to the Oporto and then in October 1918 he was appointed to R.I.M.S. Mayo in Rangoon. Davies continued in the Indian Service after 1919, based at the Omiar Engineering Works in Bombay, becoming Government Inspector of Boilers in 1923, though still not 30 years of age.

Davies served on a number of merchant vessels between the Wars, Ethel Radcliffe from December 1918, Mortlake from April 1929, Peterston from April 1937, and then Clarissa Radcliffe from April 1940. He survived the loss of the Cargo Steamer Llanover, en route from the Tyne and bound for Philadelphia, when she was torpedoed and sunk by U-124 on 12 May 1942. He had been serving on the Llanover since August 1940 and returned to England from New York on the Arabian Prince. In June 1944, Davies was 1st Engineer on SS Vera Radcliffe which was chosen to be manoeuvred into place and scuttled as part of the temporary harbour and breakwater complex set in place off Juno Beach for D-Day; his papers showing this as ‘special operations.’

Sold with copied research including a photographic image of the recipient.