Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Somaliland 1908-10 (K.1016 A. Willingham, Sto. 1Cl., H.M.S. Hyacinth) edge bruising, good very fine £200-250

Albert Willingham was born in Sittingbourne, Kent on 4 January 1888. A General Labourer by occupation, he enlisted into the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in July 1908. He served on H.M.S. Hyacinth, March 1909-June 1911, during which time he served off the coast of Somaliland and in the Persian Gulf, being advanced to Stoker 1st Class in October 1909. During the Great War he served on the old battleship H.M.S. Mars, July-November 1914, then the scout cruiser H.M.S. Forward, November 1914-April 1915, being promoted to Acting Leading Stoker in April 1915. Leading Stoker Willingham was killed on 27 May 1915, aged 27 years, when serving on the converted minelayer H.M.S. Princess Irene. The vessel was moored in Saltpan Reach in the Medway Estuary, between Port Victoria and Sheerness and was loading mines in preparation for a mission, when at 11.15a.m. on 27 May 1915 she blew up with terrific force - with some wreckage landing 20 miles away. A total of 352 men were killed, including 273 officers and men and 76 dockyard workers. Only one seaman and a few dockyard workers escaped the inferno. Willingham’s name is commemorated in Gillingham (Woodlands) Cemetery, Kent. With copied research. Also entitled to the Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Persian Gulf 1909-14 and 1914-15 Star trio.