Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War O.B.E. group of four awarded to Engineer Commander T. A. Graham, Royal Naval Reserve and Mercantile Marine

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 1st type breast badge, silver-gilt, hallmarks for 1918, in Garrard, London, case of issue; 1914-15 Star (Ch. Eng., T. A. Graham, R.N.R.); British War and Victory Medals (Eng. Commr. T. A. Graham R.N.R.) with original named card boxes of issue; together with the related miniature awards mounted as worn, nearly extremely fine (4) £300-£400

O.B.E. London Gazette 24 May 1919:
‘For valuable services as Engineering Officer of H.M.S. Orbita, whilst employed on ocean escort duties.’

The original Recommendation, submitted by Captain Ballard of the Orbita, states: ‘This officer was 63 years of age and at all times set a fine example of devotion to duty, untiring zeal and cheeriness.’

Thomas Alexander Graham was born at Tillicoultry, Clackmannan, Scotland in 1856. In 1881 he joined the Pacific Steam Navigation Company serving in several merchant vessels rising through the Engineering ranks, and as well as seagoing became an engineering inspector for ship construction. In 1914 he was the Chief Engineer of the S.S. Oronsa and in March 1915 he was appointed Chief Engineer of the S.S. Orbita at the Harland and Wolff shipyard, Belfast. On the requisitioning of S.S. Orbita he was Commissioned as Engineering Commander, Royal Naval Reserve, and stayed with her for the duration of the Great War.

The Royal Mail Steam Packet Orbita was commissioned by the Admiralty in 1915, and was fitted out with heavy guns and converted to an Auxiliary Cruiser in which capacity she served continually for four years of the Great War. Orbita carried the members of the British Political and Commercial Mission to the Republics of South America. On one voyage she carried millions of pounds worth of gold bullion from South Africa to Halifax, Nova Scotia for New York and Ottawa. In 1918 she was the only convoy escort for a convoy of 40 vessels from Newport News to Europe, only two ships of the convoy being lost.

For his services in the S.S. Orbita Graham was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and was invested with his insignia by H.M. The King on 31 July 1919. His Royal Naval Reserve Commission was cancelled in October 1919, and he returned to the Merchant Navy, serving until his retirement in 1921.

Sold together with a large quantity of original documents, including the recipient’s Board of Trade Certificate of Competency as First Class Engineer, dated 24 October 1885; four Captain’s personal conduct reports from the Captain of Orbita; letter from the Offices of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company congratulating Graham on the award of the O.B.E.; Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood enclosure slip for the Warrant of Appointment of the O.B.E.; the recipient’s own typed narrative of the record long voyage of Orbita in 1915; a photograph of the officers of Orbita from September 1916; the recipient’s typed note of ‘items of interest regarding the R.M.S.P. Orbita’; the recipient’s record of his Merchant Navy and Royal Naval Reserve service from 1881, when he joined the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, to his retirement in 1921; 21 original letters home to his daughters during the war, manly written from Orbita, with transcribed typed copies; and copied research.