Medals for Services at Sea from the Collection of the Late Oliver Stirling Lee

Three: Chief Electrical Artificer 1st Class T. Kay, Royal Navy

Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Somaliland 1908-10 (2) (345642 Elect. 2 Cl., H.M.S. Hyacinth), both identically named duplicate issues; Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Persian Gulf 1909-1914 (345642 Elect. 2 Cl., H.M.S. Hyacinth), another duplicate issue, edge bruising and a few contact marks, generally very fine or better (3) £180-220

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals for Services at Sea from the Collection of the Late Oliver Stirling Lee.

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Tom Kay was born in Manchester in October 1880 and entered the Royal Navy as an Acting Electrician in October 1902. He subsequently witnessed active service aboard H.M.S. Hyacinth during the Somaliland operations of 1908-10 and in the Persian Gulf in 1910-11, thereby winning entitlement to the appropriate Medals and clasps, but, as fate would have it, neither would survive the coming war.

Having taken delivery of his Africa General Service 1902-56 Medal and clasp aboard H.M.S. Queen in June 1911, Kay was serving in the Hogue in September 1914 when she was famously sunk by the U-9, in company with the Aboukir and Cressy, about 30 miles from Ymuiden - over 1400 officers and men were lost on the same occasion. Accordingly, he applied for a duplicate Medal to be sent to him in his next ship, the Cornwallis, in June 1915, where, too, he also took delivery of his original Naval General Service Medal that December. As fate would have it, however, the Cornwallis, too, fell victim to a torpedo attack, in January 1917, this time delivered by the U-32. As a result, Kay now applied for his third Africa General Service Medal and his second Naval General Service Medal, both of which were delivered to him while based at Pembroke in September 1917; but, as confirmed by the existence of the above described awards, one of his earlier Africa General Service Medals must have mysteriously turned up in his kit bag at a later date. Kay, who was also awarded the L.S. & G.C. Medal in October 1917, was pensioned ashore in June 1922.