Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Great War D.S.O. group of six awarded to Captain S.A.G. Hill, Royal Navy, one of only 28 British recipients of the U.S. Navy Cross

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER, G.V.R.; CHINA 1900, no clasp (Midsn., R.N. H.M.S. Dido); 1914-15 STAR (Lt. Commr., R.N.); BRITISH WAR AND VICTORY MEDALS (Commr., R.N.); U.S.A. NAVY CROSS, mounted for display nearly very fine or better (6)

The lot is sold with the recipient's original D.S.O. warrant.

D.S.O., London Gazette, 7 June 1918. An award for a depth-charge attack on the U-104 in April 1918.

United States Navy Cross, London Gazette, 16 September, 1919.

Only 28 awards to British recipients during the Great War. Captain Sidney Arthur Geary Hill, D.S.O., was born in September 1881 and educated at South Lodge School, Lowestoft. He entered the Royal Navy as a Cadet aboard H.M.S. Britannia, receiving promotion to Lieutenant in 1903, following service in the Boxer rebellion with H.M.S. Dido. In August 1914 he was appointed to the command of the armed merchant cruiser Armadale Castle and remained with her until March 1917, when he became captain of H.M.S. Jessamine. It was during this latter appointment, on 25 April 1918, that Hill's ship was credited for a depth-charge attack on the enemy submarine U-104, a subsequent Admiralty report stating that 'the conduct of all concerned on this occasion deserves much praise and showed that the ship was well organised and disciplined and ready to act as soon as an opportunity occasioned.' He subsequently received the D.S.O. and in 1919, the United States Navy Cross (He is erroneously credited with a mention in despatches and the U.S. Naval D.S.M. in O'Moore and Creagh).