Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte

The inter-war M.B.E., Great War D.S.M. group of ten awarded to Telegraphist Lieutenant-Commander C. C. France, who, having been decorated for his services in the submarine K. 2 in 1917, held command of an important wireless transmission station on Malta 1942-44

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Military) Member’s 1st type breast badge, hallmarks for London 1934, in its Garrard & Co. case of issue; Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (238487 C. C. France, P.O. Tel., Submarine Service, 1917); 1914-15 Star (238489 C. C. France, P.O. Tel., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Wt. Tel. C. C. France, R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Defence & War Medals; Jubilee 1935, this privately engraved, ‘Tel. Lieut. C. C. France, R.N.’, generally good very fine (10) £2500-3000

M.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1936.

D.S.M. London Gazette 2 November 1917:
‘For services in submarines in enemy waters.

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte.

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Charles Clement France was born at Tadcaster, Yorkshire, in January 1886 and entered the Royal Navy in May 1904. Advanced to Petty Officer Telegraphist in October 1910, he was serving in Vernon on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, but transferred to the submarine service in the following year. And in March 1917, he joined K. 2, in which submarine he was advanced to Warrant Telegraphist.

In the latter half of June 1917, K. 2 participated in Admiral Beatty’s “Operation B.B.”, namely a massive anti-U-Boat sweep employing four flotilla leaders, 49 destroyers and 16 other submarines, the whole divided into nine groups and covering an area which extended round the northern half of Scotland - their aim was to compel U-Boats to dive in areas occupied by the destroyers, and then to catch them on the surface in adjacent areas patrolled by the K-class submarines: by the end of the exercise, 37 U-Boats had been sighted and 11 of them attacked, and judging by France’s D.S.M., K. 2 was one of those engaged.

It was also during the course of this momentous operation that K. 2 was reported to have been lost, the Fair Isle lighthouse-keepers informing the Admiralty that she had struck a mine - appropriate telegrams were accordingly sent out to next of kin. Two days later, however, lookouts in the Grand Fleet sighted K. 2 as she approached Scapa Flow, her arrival revealing that her encounter with a mine was merely one of her shells exploding on the water during a test-firing of her 4-inch gun off the Fair Isle, immediately following which she had dived.

From July 1917 until the end of 1919, France served in the 12th Submarine Flotilla’s Ithuriel, a period which included her presence in the disastrous exercise that became known as “The Battle of Moy Island”, when, on the last day of January 1918, several collisions resulted in the loss of K. 4 and K. 17, in addition to damage to three other submarines and the Inflexible and Fearless.

During the inter-war period he served aboard several battleships and cruisers but was also attached to the Titania, depot ship for the 4th Submarine Flotilla on the China station, during the China Emergency in 1927. He was advanced to Commissioned Telegraphist in July of the latter year and to Telegraphist Lieutenant in August 1934, and was placed on the Retired List in January 1936, the same month in which he was gazetted for his M.B.E.

Recalled in August 1939, France served in Calliope until October 1942, when he was appointed Telegraphist Lieutenant-Commander in St Angelo, parent ship at Malta, where he was in command of the important wireless transmission station at Rnella, 1942-44, which period, of course, encompassed the famous siege.

Sold with the recipient’s particularly fine “career” photograph album, which contains many interesting images of submarines, including K. 2, K. 3, and K. 14 during the Great War; L. 2, L. 4, L. 7, L. 8 and L. 18 on the China Station 1926-28; H.M.S. Titania with six ‘L’ class submarines moored alongside; and H.M. S./M. Snapper off Malta in 1936; also of interest are several shots of the Shanghai Defence Corps, general views of Shanghai and Wei-Hei-Wei during the 1927 emergency, and others of Hong Kong and North China, together with a pass to attend the War Crimes Court at Luneburg on 11 October 1945, issued by the C.O. of H.M.S. Royal Katherine.