A Collection of Awards to Merchant Seamen and D.E.M.S. Gunners

Four: Captain E. Prince, Mercantile Marine and Royal Naval Reserve, who was in command of the S.S. Chilkana on the occasion of her capture by the German raider Emden in October 1914

British War and Mercantile Marine War Medals 1914-18 (E. Prince); British War and Victory Medals (Lt. Commr. E. Prince, R.N.R.), an unusual duplicate issue of the British War Medal owing to the recipient’s service in the R.N.R., good very fine (4) £180-220

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Awards to Merchant Seamen and D.E.M.S. Gunners.

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Edward Prince, who was born in London in 1876, obtained his Master’s Certificate in 1905, and was appointed to the command of the S.S. Chilkana in September 1914.

A little over a month later, on 19 October, while bound for Calcutta and in the Arabian Sea, she was sighted by the German raider Emden and, having been boarded and relieved of all manner of cargo, was sunk by gunfire. Owing to shortage of space, Prince and his crew were placed aboard the St. Egbert, an earlier victim of the Emden, and sent to India.

Next appointed to the command of the Dwarka, in June 1915, he was employed on the Bombay, Karachi and Persian Gulf run, following which, in June 1916, he joined the Kasara on transport duties. And he remained similarly employed until being taken on the strength of the Royal Naval Reserve as a Lieutenant-Commander from April 1918.

Relinquishing his commission in March 1919, Price finally came ashore June 1928 and died at Hove, Sussex in June 1934; sold with a file of research.