Orders, Decorations and Medals

A superb Family Group comprising a Great War D.S.O., M.C. group of five to Lieutenant-Colonel W. K. Tillie, Royal West Kent Regiment and Machine Gun Corps, and a Second World War D.S.C. and Bar group of six to Lieutenant L. J. Tillie, Royal Navy, H.M.S. Hotspur, who was killed on active service off Madagascar in September 1942

Five: Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R.; Military Cross, G.V.R.; 1914-15 Star (Lieut., R.W. Kent R.); British War and Victory Medals, with oak leaf M.I.D. (Lt.Col.)

Six: Distinguished Service Cross, G.VI.R., with Second Award Bar, both officially dated ‘1940’; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Burma Star; War Medal, all unnamed as issued, extremely fine (11) £2000-2500

Lieutenant-Colonel William Kingsley Tilley, D.S.O., M.C., Royal West Kent Regiment and Machine Gun Corps:

D.S.O. London Gazette 16 September 1918: ‘Temp. Lieut. Col., Machine Gun Corps. For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. The personal reconnaissances made by him under very heavy fire were of the utmost value. His energy and fearlessness in going amongst his men at critical periods at great personal risk set a fine example and inspired great confidence. The determination with which he handled his machine guns was largely responsible for defeating many hostile attacks.’

M.C. London Gazette 18 November 1915: ‘Temp. Lieut., 8th Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment. For conspicuous gallantry and ability near Hulluch on the 26th September 1915. He handled his machine guns with great skill, and continued to serve a gun single-handed after all the team had become casualties, until his ammunition was exhausted. He brought his gun back himself. Finally, when all the other Officers of his battalion had become casualties, he showed great courage and resource and brought the battalion out of action in good order.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 1 January 1916, 4 January 1917, 24 December 1917, 25 May 1918, 30 December 1918, and 10 July 1919.

On 21 September 1915, Tillie’s battalion commenced to move up as part of the 72nd Infantry Brigade for the battle of Loos. They marched for 4 days, spending the night of the 25th in some old German trenches, and moved into the attack at 11 a.m. the following day. After a gallant advance, inadequately supported, of 2100 yards in the face of murderous fire, they eventually reached impenetrable wire and eventually had to fall back. All 25 officers of the battalion and about 900 men attacked. Of the officers, only one came out unscathed, Lieutenant Tillie, who also brought the battalion out of action. Thirteen officers were killed; Colonel Vansittart and five other officers were badly wounded and picked up by the enemy after lying exposed in No Man’s Land for many hours, and passed into captivity. Over 550 other ranks became casualties. In a single day the 8th Battalion were decimated.

Lieutenant Leopold John Tillie, D.S.C. & Bar, Royal Navy:

D.S.C. London Gazette 7 June 1940: ‘Sub. Lieut. R.N. For daring, resource and devotion to duty in the first Battle of Narvik.’

Bar to D.S.C. London Gazette 3 December 1940: ‘Lieut., R.N. For courage and resource in recent operations against Italian submarines.’

Lieutenant Leopold John Tillie served in H.M.S. Hotspur from early in the War until he died on 12 September 1942. It was during the first Battle of Narvik that he won his D.S.C., an action that also saw the first gazetted Victoria Cross of the War, to Captain B. A. W. Warburton-Lee in H.M.S. Hardy. Warburton-Lee was Captain (D), 2nd Destroyer Flotilla, comprising Hardy, Hotspur, Havoc, Hunter and Hostile, in the attack on Narvik on 10 April 1940, when the flotilla became engaged with a vastly superior German force. During the action, the heavily damaged Hunter swerved across the path of Hotspur, whose captain, Cdr. H. F. H. Layman, promptly gave orders to avoid collision. ‘At that moment a shell burst below his bridge, cutting not only the controls between the wheel and the steering gear, but twisting and jamming the engine-room telegraph connections. Unable either to steer or to give orders to stop engines, Layman saw his bow cleave deep into the Hunter’s hull.

The two ships were locked together, the Hotspur’s forward way spinning them slowly round. To get control of his ship again, Layman left the bridge to run aft to where he could give verbal orders to the engines and the auxiliary steering position right aft. Hardly had he left when a shell hit on the bridge, bursting against the pedestal of the gun director, killing every soul left on the bridge and in the director tower. The German destroyers were now pouring a devastating fire into the two crippled ships. Reaching the after superstructure where “X” gun was mounted and whence the two after guns were being kept in action and controlled by the wounded Sub-Lieutenant L. J. Tillie, Layman was able to control his engines by verbal orders passed down the engine-room hatch. He managed to disengage his ship from the now sinking Hunter, then, by the cumbrous method of passing messages down to the tiller flat in the extreme stern, he was able to shape a wavering course down the fjord away from the hail of shells which was rapidly reducing the Hotspur to a wreck. In this action both Hardy and Hunter were sunk, and Hotspur very badly damaged.

Lieutenant Tillie won the Bar to his D.S.C. on 20 October 1940, when Hotspur, with Gallant and Griffin, and supported by flying boats of No. 202 Squadron, sank the Italian submarine Lafole just east of Gibraltar. His was one of only six D.S.C’s with Bar to be won in 1940. During 1941 Hotspur had a very active time in the Mediterranean, taking part in the evacuation of Greece, an attack on Benghazi harbour, the blockade of Beirut, and the sinking of U-79 off Bardia. In March 1942, Hotspur moved to the Indian Ocean and operated there for many months. On 12 September 1942, en route to the landings of the 29th Infantry Brigade at Tananarive, Madagascar (operation Jane), Lieutenant Leopold Tillie was washed overboard and lost in heavy seas. A search was made but without success. Lieutenant-Commander Hugh Hodgkinson, a shipmate in Hotspur, made the following tribute:

‘Leo was “Number Three.” He had everything; tall, good-looking, twenty-one years old, D.S.C. and Bar, Chief Cadet Captain at Dartmouth, all-round games player, lover of good music. Leo excelled too much for this war. There was no room for Leo and Hitler in this same modern world, so the gods took Leo back. It was good that he never felt disillusion, that he never had to countenance the horrors of present Europe. He rode high on his ideals, and the sailors loved him.’