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

Five: Chief Engine Room Artificer 2nd Class G. Francis, Royal Navy

1914-15 Star (270764 C.E.R.A. 2, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (270764 C.E.R.A. 2, R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (270764 C.E.R.A. 2 Cl., H.M.S. Duke of Edinburgh); Royal Naval Meritorious Service Medal, G.V.R., 1st issue (270764 C.E.R.A. 2 Cl., “Duke of Edinburgh”, 1917-18), contact marks, otherwise very fine and better (5) £300-350

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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George Francis was born at Falmouth, Cornwall in April 1880 and entered the Royal Navy as an Acting Engine Room Artificer 4th Class in September 1902. By the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he was serving as a C.E.R.A. 2nd Class aboard H.M.S. Duke of Edinburgh, in which armoured cruiser he remained until virtually the end of the War. During that period, as part of the 1st Cruiser Squadron, his ship was present in operations in the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Persian Gulf in late 1914, and captured at least one German merchantman before returning for duty with the Grand Fleet in the North Sea and Atlantic. At Jutland, the Duke of Edinburgh was the only ship of the 1st Cruiser Squadron to survive the battle, and between 1917-18 she served with distinction on Atlantic convoys. Indeed it was for ‘services in cruisers employed on escort, convoy and patrol duties during 1917 and 1918’ that Francis was awarded his Naval M.S.M. (London Gazette 15 February 1919), which honour he added to his L.S. & G.C. Medal from November 1917. He was pensioned ashore in September 1924.