Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte

The campaign service group of six awarded to Captain E. F. Fitzgerald, Royal Navy, who survived the loss of H.M.S. King Edward VII in January 1916 and gained “mentions” at Jutland aboard the Royal Oak and for his command of the destroyer Scout in the Baltic in 1919
1914-15 Star (Lieut. E. F. Fitzgerald, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Lieut. E. F. Fitzgerald, R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, mounted as worn, the first three official duplicate awards issued in 1953, very fine and better (6) £180-220

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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Edmund Francis Fitzgerald was born at the R.N. Hospital Haslar in April 1884, the son of a Naval Inspector-General, and entered the R.N.C. Britannia as a Cadet in June 1901. A Lieutenant in the battleship King Edward VII on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he was still similarly employed at the time of her loss off Cape Wrath on 16 January 1916, when she struck a mine. Having then removed to the battleship Royal Oak in the following month, he was present at the battle of Jutland and was mentioned in despatches, his C.O. reporting that he was ‘an excellent turret officer’ (London Gazette 15 September 1916).

In May 1918, Fitzgerald was appointed to the command of the torpedo boat destroyer Scout and, having been advanced to Lieutenant-Commander that December, was actively employed in the Baltic, including Admiral Cowan’s action off Kronstadt in May 1919, on which occasion he won a second “mention” (London Gazette 9 April 1920 refers).

Placed on the Retired List as a Commander in November 1929, he was serving as a Cypher Officer for the Foreign Office by the renewal of hostilities in September 1939, in which capacity he was recalled to active duty as a Staff Intelligence Officer at the Liverpool base Eaglet in early 1940 and thence - and still on intelligence duties - to the Ardrossan base Fortitude in March 1941. Towards the end of the latter year, he was appointed Resident Naval Officer at Baldur, the base at Seidisfjord in Iceland, prior to returning to Portsmouth in November 1942 to resume his duties as a Staff Intelligence Officer. Then in July 1943, after being advanced to Captain, he returned to sea with command of the cruiser Caradoc, in which role he remained employed until assuming command of the Massawa base Bull in April 1944. Placed back on the Retired List in September 1945, Fitzgerald is believed to have died in 1965.