Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Great War submariner’s D.S.M. group of four awarded to Able Seaman W. Biggs, Royal Navy, who was decorated for ‘his coolness in a very exciting scrap’ in H.M. Submarine G.7 in the North Sea in April 1917, when his gunnery skills resulted in the possible destruction of an enemy submarine

Sadly, however, he was still serving in G.7 when she was lost with all hands after being mined in the North Sea shortly before the Armistice in November 1918

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (238350. W. Biggs. A.B. H.M. Submarines. North Sea. 15 April. 1917.) with lid of its box of issue and related registered forwarding envelope; 1914-15 Star (238350, W. Biggs, A.B., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (238350 W. Biggs. A.B. R.N.) extremely fine (4) £1,800-£2,200

D.S.M. London Gazette 22 June 1917:

‘The following awards have also been approved’ for ‘miscellaneous services.’

The original action report states:

H.M. submarine G.7. Attack on enemy submarine on 15 April 1917 … Gunlayer. At about 100 yards the first round was fired and immediately there was a flash from just before his bridge (either our shell or his foremost gun). The second round I think undoubtedly hit him in the hull below the conning tower, she being beam onto us and the roll giving the gunlayer the shine of her hull as a target.’

William Biggs was born in Northampton on 20 April 1890, and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in March 1907. Having then attended a course at the gunnery establishment Excellent, and qualified as a gunlayer, he was serving as an Able Seaman in cruiser H.M.S. Amethyst on the outbreak of war in August 1914. He quickly saw action at the battle of Heligoland Bight on the 26th, his service record noting that he was paid a bounty for the destruction of enemy ships on the same occasion.

Removing to the cruiser Leviathan at the year’s end, Biggs remained similarly employed until mid-May 1916, when he volunteered for submarines. Shortly afterwards, he joined G.7, in which he was awarded the D.S.M. for her action with an enemy submarine in the North Sea on 15 April 1917. The identity of the enemy submarine remains a mystery, but the accuracy of Bigg’s gunfire seems beyond dispute, for it was witnessed by the passengers of a merchantman, off which the U-boat had surfaced; so, too, by four Germans who were taken prisoner.

An accompanying copy of G.7’s captain’s report, as submitted by Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey Warburton, R.N., who was awarded the D.S.O., makes for entertaining reading, for it involved a protracted approach and a resultant point-blank action, G.7 at one point attempting to ram her surfaced adversary. But the highlight of the action was surely the accurate gunnery of Briggs.

Sadly, however, he was still serving in G.7 when she was lost with all hands after being mined in the North Sea shortly before the Armistice in November 1918, thereby becoming the last British submarine loss of the Great War.

The son of Richard and Martha Biggs, of Northampton, and the husband of the late Dorothy Biggs, his name is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

Sold with the recipient’s original parchment Certificate of Service, together with Memorial Scroll in the name of ‘A.B. William Biggs, D.S.M., H.M. Submarine G.7’ and a portrait photograph.