Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte

The excessively rare Boer War C.S.C. group of eight awarded to Captain R. B. C. Hutchinson, Royal Navy, who, as a young Midshipman in Terrible’s Naval Brigade, was decorated for multiple acts of gallantry in the operations leading up to the relief of Ladysmith - ‘he had many narrow escapes and on three separate occasions a 40-pounder shell fell within yards of him’ - and was one of only eight men ever to receive the C.S.C.: having then witnessed further action and ‘near squeaks’ ashore in the Boxer Rebellion, he was present at Jutland as C.O. of the Achates when, owing to horrendous losses, he assumed command of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla

Conspicuous Service Cross, E.VII.R., hallmarks for London 1901; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Tugela Heights, Relief of Ladysmith (Mid. R. B. C. Hutchinson, R.N., H.M.S. Terrible); China 1900, 1 clasp, Relief of Pekin (Midsn. R. B. C. Hutchinson, R.N., H.M.S. Terrible); 1914-15 Star (Commr. R. B. C. Hutchinson, D.S.C., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Commr. R. B. C. Hutchinson, R.N.); Defence and War Medals 1939-45, minor contact wear, otherwise good very fine or better (8) £30000-40000

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 eight Conspicuous Service Crosses were ever awarded, this example being the only one known to have appeared at auction as part of a complete group; ex-Sotheby’s 6 November 1986 (Lot 1063).

C.S.C. London Gazette 2 July 1901 and despatch by Captain E. P. Jones, R.N., dated 6 March 1900, the latter stating:

‘I must also mention Mr. Hutchinson, Midshipman, who acted as my A.D.C. He has been most useful and hard working, often spending the great part of the night finding his way across the difficult country with messages. He had many very narrow escapes. On three separate occasions a 40-pounder shell fell within yards of him.’

Reginald Becher Caldwell Hutchinson was born at Hammersmith, London in August 1882, and entered Britannia as a Naval Cadet in May 1897.

South Africa and China

Appointed a Midshipman in the following year, he joined H.M.S. Terrible in September 1899, and quickly saw action in South Africa after being landed with the Naval Brigade that November, including the actions at Colenso, Spion Kop and Vaal Krantz, but, according to his own diary, it was before Ladysmith in February that he experienced some of the more spectacular ‘very narrow escapes’ cited by Captain E. P. Jones, R.N.:

7 February 1900: ‘I went down to Hospital Camp at the foot of Schwartz Kop and two shells from 6-inch guns pitched within 150 or 200 yards from me. They made a tremendous noise coming.’

23 February 1900: ‘At daylight crossed the river by pontoon bridge and brought guns into action near road. We had a very exposed position and enemy soon discovered us and shelled us thick and fast the whole day. Captain Cox severely hit. Also one man by a rifle bullet of which there were plenty.’

24 February 1900: ‘Slept last night under gun in case of attack. Bullets fell very thick. Today we were shelled heavily - men say I have a charmed life. I had three narrow escapes.’

George Crow’s From Portsmouth to Peking via Ladysmith adds further detail to events on the 24th:

‘A Midshipman (Mr. Hutchinson) who was sitting opposite the writer, was somewhat disturbed by a 45lb. shell which pitched only two feet behind him into a soft bank, and instantaneously rebounded back quite some 100 yards and dropped into the centre of some Naval volunteers, unexploded and quite harmless. This same officer had two more shells burst within a few inches of him that day, getting off unscathed each time, he being humorously described as the Jonas for the day, and a person to steer clear of ... ’

To which Hutchinson later added in his own hand to his copy of Crow’s book:

‘I had several near squeaks before this when on messages to different places for Captain Jones but never so near as these. I was riding my horse, or rather leading it, at the time of the second shell and a bit of it hit my horse but only made a small wound.’

Having been chosen as one of two Naval officers to ride at the side of General Buller in his triumphant entry into Ladysmith at the month’s end, Hutchinson and his shipmates from the Terrible were ordered to China, where, once again, he was landed for services with the Naval Brigade and quickly experienced further ‘near squeaks’. His diary, and Midshipman’s Journal, take up the story, as the brigade advanced on Pekin in the summer of 1900:

6 July 1900: ‘Severe shelling on both sides starting early this morning. Shells bursting all round guns on mud wall. Several coming within 3-4 yards. While the Marines were working a captured Krupp gun a shell burst in the gun blowing off a Marine’s arm.’

As verified in Crow’s history, Hutchinson was actually serving with Lieutenant Wilde’s 12-pounder gun on this date, ‘which had a very busy time of it, no less than 400 hundred shells having been fired at it from a battery of five guns.’

So, too, a witness to the horrors of war:

15 July 1900: ‘I went into the native city. It was rather difficult to make any progress as half the place was in flame and ruins. The streets were strewn all along with dead and dying Chinamen. A repulsive smell of roasted flesh prevailed.’

Returning home in early 1902, Hutchinson was given rapid promotion to Lieutenant that September, in addition to receiving his C.S.C. at an investiture held shortly before Christmas Day. Then in September 1908, he received his first command, a torpedo boat, the commencement of protracted service in small ships.

Jutland and beyond

A Lieutenant-Commander and C.O. of the destroyer Success on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, Hutchinson removed to the Liberty at the end of the same month, following the death of her previous commander at Heligoland Bight - in which action his head was blown off.

Subsequently present at the battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, and in operations off the Belgian coast, he was advanced to Commander in June of the latter year and appointed C.O. of the Achates, in which capacity he was present at the battle of Jutland, when Achates formed part of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla and was heavily engaged against the spearhead of the enemy’s battleship line - such was the atrocious damage and loss inflicted on the flotilla in two gallantly executed torpedo attacks that overall command fell to Hutchinson. But he consequently had the misfortune to call off a third torpedo attack for fear of hitting what he believed to be British cruisers - when in fact they were ships from the German Fourth Scouting Group and quickly straddled the Fortune and Porpoise. His decision to call off the attack was subsequently defended by Taffrail in Endless Story, though Their Lordships appear to have been less understanding, no doubt as a result of Hutchinson’s criticism of the lack of information made available to him as to the dispositions of our battleships and cruisers:

‘When Commander R. B. C. Hutchinson, D.S.C., of the Achates wrote in his report: ‘I respectfully submit that in future the maximum amount of information may be given to destroyers as to the disposition of our own forces, observing the difficulty of recognition at night,’ he was only voicing the general perplexity of many other destroyer captains. They knew their own battle-fleet was five miles ahead, steaming its southerly course at 17 knots. But few of them were aware of the whereabouts of the British battle-cruisers - in all, thirty ships. Scattered during the daylight action, they might be anywhere. Yet, in the pitch blackness, with visibility sometimes as low as half a mile, it was the duty of the destroyers to make certain before they attacked that they did not fire torpedoes at their friends. They knew full well that they would be fired upon if they approached their own ships at night, and were painfully aware that if they challenged an enemy with the usual flashing signal, it at once established their identity as British and would evoke an instant reply in the shape of a tornado of gunfire at point-blank range.

With the ships steaming at high speeds, the darkness and low visibility did not give much time for thought if a vessel were suddenly sighted. Immediate action was necessary if a chance of making a successful attack was not to be missed. Yet how was immediate action possible if that blurred shadow might be a friend?

Studying all the available records and narratives of the night fighting that followed, one realises that the task of the flotillas massed five miles astern of the British battle-fleet was as difficult, responsible and dangerous as it possibly could be.

Difficulty and danger nobody minded, for they were used to it. Moreover, torpedo-attacks at night were one of the functions for which destroyers existed. But the prospect of sinking one of their own vessels was frightful to contemplate. Commander Hutchinson’s remark was not made without good and sufficient reason.’

To conclude - whatever the views held by his seniors - the achievements of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla were duly praised in the official Narrative of the Battle of Jutland:

‘Those vessels of the flotilla that remained capable of action [under Hutchinson’s command] were now scattered and dispersed and took no further effective part in the operations. The 4th Flotilla had ceased to exist as an organised force, but the German fleet had been thrown into confusion and its escape had been delayed by nearly half an hour, since it had been forced to haul right around to S.S.W., 6 points off its course for the Horns Riff’.

Later in the same year, Hutchinson assumed command of the destroyer Plover, in which capacity he remained actively engaged in operations in the North Sea until being posted to Port Said to take over, on her commissioning, the monitor M. 31, but, by the War’s end he was serving as Senior Naval Officer (S.N.O.) at Beirut. Having in the interim then served as S.N.O. of the Red Sea Patrol aboard the Clematis, he was placed on the Retired List in the rank of Captain in September 1928.

Recalled on the renewal of hostilities in September 1939, Hutchinson was given command of the armed yacht Lady Vagrant but, in March 1940, removed as C.O. to the North Shields base Calliope. Placed back on the Retired List in January 1946, he died at Middletown, Stoke Fleming, Devon in late 1963.


To be sold with the following original documentation:

(i) The recipient’s Midshipman’s Journals (2), covering the periods September 1898 to September 1900, and September 1900 to March 1901, with usual maps, charts and other illustrations but, more importantly, first hand accounts of his time ashore in South Africa and China 1899-1900.

(ii) The recipient’s copy of From Portsmouth to Peking via Ladysmith, by Terrible’s Master at Arms, George Crow, with occasional annotation in the recipient’s hand, and including a quantity of inserted photographs of Naval Boer War interest.

(iii) A copy of the pamphlet Mounting of the Naval Guns and Their Subsequent Use with the Ladysmith Relief Column, by Captain P. Scott, C.B., and Captain A. H. Limpus.

(iv) An old ink inscribed slip of paper entitled A.W.O. 2051/1920 - Award of Naval Clasps and a list of the recipient’s intended claims, including Narrow Seas 1914, Dogger Bank, Belgian Coast 1915, Jutland and Red Sea 1918.