Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte

The Great War D.S.O. and Bar group of nine awarded to Captain P. R. P. Percival, Royal Navy, for his gallant command of the destroyer Morris in the Dover Patrol

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., with Second Award Bar, silver-gilt and enamel; Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Persian Gulf 1909-1914 (Lieut. P. R. P. Percival, R.N., H.M.S. Muzbee); 1914-15 Star (Lieut. P. R. P. Percival, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Lt. Commr. P. R. P. Percival, R.N.); Defence and War Medals; Delhi Durbar 1911, privately engraved, ‘Lieut.P. R. P. Percival, H.M.S. Sphinx, 1911’; French Legion of Honour, Chevalier’s breast badge, silver, gilt and enamel, mounted court-style as worn, minor enamel chips, good very fine and better (9) £5000-6000

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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Only 69 Bars to the D.S.O. were awarded to the Royal Navy in the Great War, including the Royal Marines and the Royal Naval Air Service.

D.S.O. London Gazette 26 April 1918:
‘For operations on the Belgian Coast.’

Bar to D.S.O. London Gazette 21 June 1918:
‘For services in the action with enemy destroyers off the Belgian coast on 21 March 1918 ... Lieutenant-Commander P. R. P. Percival, R.N., commanding H.M.S. Morris, for great initiative and promptitude shown by him in keeping good station during the first stage of the action, and opening fire with Botha. On the latter being disabled, he showed great initiative in continuing and pressing home the action, torpedoing and sinking an enemy torpedo boat. Showed great promptitude in taking Botha in tow and brought her safely into harbour.’

French Legion of Honour London Gazette 7 August 1918.

Percy Ralph Passawer Percival was born in Vienna in July 1886, the son of Captain H. F. P. Percival, Army Service Corps, and entered the Royal Navy in Britannia in September 1901. Appointed Midshipman in the battleship London on the Mediterranean Station in February 1903, he was advanced to Lieutenant in December 1908 and commanded the armed launch Muzbee in the Persian Gulf operations of 1911 - in addition to himself, one Gunner, eight R.N. ratings and 15 Indian ratings from Muzbee received the “Persian Gulf” clasp, the second rarest ship for this distinction. Moreover, having joined the Sphinx, he received the Delhi Durbar Medal in 1911.

By the advent of hostilities in August 1914, Percival was in command of the destroyer Mermaid, and quickly saw action at the bombardment of the German Army’s right wing on the Belgian Coast on 18 October, services that won him a “mention” (London Gazette 13 April 1915 refers). Next appointed to the command of the Dover Patrol’s Afridi in December 1915, he assisted in the rescue of passengers from the S.S. Sussex, which had been torpedoed in the English Channel on 24 March 1916, an incident which created quite a stir in Washington D.C. on account of her carrying American citizens. One month later to the day, using her explosive sweep, the Afridi finished off a German U-Boat which had earlier been crippled by the drifter Gleaner of the Sea. Percival was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 23 May 1917) and advanced to Lieutenant-Commander.

Removing to another destroyer of the Dover Patrol, the Morris, in January 1917, he won his first D.S.O. for an action off the Belgian coast early in the following year, and a Bar for his part in the night action off Dunkirk on 21 March, when he finished off an enemy torpedo boat and towed the crippled Botha back to port - interestingly, he, too, made an effort to ram at speed one of the enemy’s torpedo boats but, unlike like Rede in Botha, just missed. He received his D.S.O. and Bar from the King at a Buckingham Palace investiture that June.

Post-war, he was advanced to Commander in December 1922, saw service in the Petard on the China Station in 1927, and was placed on the Retired List in the rank of Captain in July 1932. Recalled on the renewal of hostilities, he held a number of staff appointments and commanded the W.R.N.S. training establishment Fledgling from 1943 to 1945. He was released in the rank of Captain in May 1946.