Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte

A rare Great War Tigris Flotilla operations D.S.M. pair awarded to Stoker Petty Officer A. E. Wilton, Royal Navy, who was decorated for his gallant deeds in the gunboat Sumana during the Kut operations

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (161168 A. E. Wilton, Sto. P.O., H.M.S. Sumana, Mesopotamia, 1915-6); China 1900, no clasp (A. E. Wilton, Lg. Sto. 1st Cl., H.M.S. Aurora), minor surface scratches to the first and contact marks on the second, otherwise very fine and better (2) £800-1000

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

View
Collection

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

Alfred Ernest Wilton was born in Cornwall in April 1872 and entered the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in June 1891. Advanced to Leading Stoker 1st Class while serving in H.M.S. Aurora on the China Station in November 1900 (Medal), he was pensioned ashore as a Stoker Petty Officer in May 1913.

Having then enrolled in the Royal Fleet Reserve, Wilton was recalled on the outbreak of hostilities, initially with an appointment in the battleship Ocean but, from November 1914, in the sloop Espiegle, in which ship he was embarked for Mesopotamia in the following year.

Removing to another sloop, the Clio, in the same theatre of war in August 1915, he was in fact lent out to the gunboat Sumana for services on the Tigris during the Kut operations, and it was in this capacity that he was awarded the D.S.M. - his service record also verifies that he was taken P.O.W. at Kut on 29 April 1916, but shortly thereafter exchanged by the Turks.

The Sumana was one of a remarkable ‘gallimaufry of vessels’ pressed into service on the Tigris, was commanded by Lieutenant Lionel Tudway, R.N., who ‘had the nerve of Beelzebub’ and quickly won a D.S.O. and a D.S.C., and was armed with one 12-pounder and two 3-pounder guns, both of which were brought ashore for the final defence of Kut in March 1916. Meanwhile, however, the Sumana was heavily engaged in the action fought on 28 September 1915 and during the battle of Ctesiphon on 22 November, so, too, in many subsequent ‘side shows’ during the retreat back to Kut and thereafter - far too numerous for the purposes of this catalogue entry but, by way of example, the following extracts from The Secrets of a Kuttite, by Captain E. O. Brooks, R.F.A., who was a friend of Lieutenant Tudway, are not without interest:

19 March 1916:

‘Another shell got the Sumana through the funnel and bridge, killing one of her crew. Tudway’s cabin was completely wrecked. Tudway is a deserving, hard-working subaltern, the only R.N. representative in Kut. He always takes it as a personal insult if his gunboat is hit. She is the apple of his eye. H.M.S. Sumana, an improvised gunboat, is of the greatest importance, as she keeps us in touch with “Woolpress”, our tiny stronghold on the other bank, which prevents the Turks from coming right down to the river-bank and thus rendering our water-front totally unendurable. She takes across a barge with provisions and reliefs, and makes three or four trips a week. This the Turks know full-well, and do their best to send her under during the day. However, she is fairly well protected with mahelas and rafts, though by no means completely. It is a difficult problem to know how to protect her, and engages all Tudway’s thoughts. In fact, how she remains afloat at all is a puzzle to every one.’

20 March 1916:

‘Another small strafe started, and H.M.S. Sumana stopped quite a few. She received five direct hits from 9-pounders, and one from the 18-pounder field-gun the enemy captured from us at Ahwaz ... truly the sight of the Sumana ripped and torn through and through by shell and bullet, with her shotted funnel and her smashed cabins, and her White Ensign soiled and tattered, the finest flag in all the world, still fluttering in the storm - would be a sight for gods.’

Had Tudway’s bold plan to escape Kut in late April 1916 been agreed upon, he and his crew may have avoided capture, but it was not to be. The Secrets of Kuttite continues:

28 April 1916:

‘At lunch Tudway informed me in his quiet way that he contemplated running the gauntlet downstream in the Sumana tonight in the hope of saving his ship from the Turks. He has communicated with his S.N.O. at Basrah. He invited me to come with him. I felt very complimented and after some consideration I agreed. Tudway knew his ship, the river, and likely stoppages. He had counted the risk of cables. The current would help us and the Turkish guns were all still, no doubt, pointing downstream against possible Julnas. In two hours we should be down. We left things at this and Tudway went to make inquiries. He has just returned in a resigned frame of mind. The project was absolutely private and not known to headquarters, who, however, sent anticipatory orders to Tudway that the Samana was under no circumstances to be damaged but kept intact in Kut.’

After being exchanged by the Turks, Wilton returned to the U.K. in the course of 1916 and served ashore until the end of hostilities. He was finally demobilised in January 1920, latterly having added the L.S. & G.C. Medal to his accolades; sold with copied service record.