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

Seven: Captain D. Hey, Merchant Navy, who was mentioned in despatches for his gallant command of the M.V. Maron when she was torpedoed and sunk off Algeria in November 1942

British War and Mercantile Marine War Medals 1914-18 (David Hey); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; War Medal, M.I.D. oak leaf, together with a British War Medal 1914-20 (Robert J. Hey), good very fine or better (8) £160-180

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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Mention in despatches London Gazette 30 March 1943:

‘For services when the ship was torpedoed and sunk.’

David Hey, who was born in Cardiff in May 1880, served in the Mercantile Marine in the Great War.

Of his subsequent events aboard his command the M.V. Maron, which ship he joined in June 1942, A Merchant Fleet at War, by Captain S. W. Roskill, R.N., states:

‘It was one of those enemies - the U-431 - that sank the Maron (Captain D. Hey) on 13 November 1942 - the same day the Glenfinlas was hit. Having almost completed discharging her cargo, she had left Algiers Bay after dark the previous evening in a small convoy of four ships with a comparatively generous escort of two sloops and two corvettes. U-431, however, managed to penetrate the screen, and just after 3 p.m. on the 13th she hit the Maron on the port side abreast No. 2 hatch. The explosion was, in Captain Hey’s words, ‘terrific’, and the ship at once begun to settle by the head. All boats got away within five minutes, and at 3.15 p.m. the Maron sank. The crew were picked up by the corvette H.M.S. Marigold, which landed them at Gibraltar, whence they came home in the P. & O. liner Mooltan. Captain Hey warmly commended the calmness and efficiency with which his men met the emergency, and he considered the fact that no lives were lost was due to their conduct and to his having had the lifeboats swung out at the time.’

Hey was mentioned in despatches, being on official Admiralty business at the time, and held two or three more wartime commands, the last of them the Fort Corville. He finally came ashore in early 1954.

Robert John Hey, believed to be David’s younger brother, was born in Cardiff in October 1892, and served as a Third Officer in the Mercantile Marine in the Great War; sold with a file of research.