Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Ship Steward’s Assistant W. H. Friend, Royal Navy

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (S.S. Asst., H.M.S. Thetis); 1914-15 Star (341417 S.S.A., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (341417 S.S.A., R.N.), edge bruising, generally very fine (4) £180-200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Barrett J. Carr Collection of Boer War Medals.

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A total of 285 Queen’s South Africa Medals were awarded to the ship’s company of H.M.S. Thetis, 183 of them without clasp.

William Henry Friend was born in Plymouth, Devon in February 1889 and entered the Royal Navy as a Ship Steward’s Boy in January 1897. He subsequently served in H.M.S. Thetis from June 1899 to June 1901, in which period he was advanced to Ship Steward’s Assistant and qualified for his Queen’s South Africa Medal.

He came ashore ‘time expired’ in February 1912, but was recalled on the outbreak of hostilities, and in early October 1914 he joined the battle cruiser Tiger, in which ship he served until coming ashore again in January 1916. He was consequently present at the Battle of Dogger Bank on 24 January 1915, when the Tiger’s eight 13.5-inch guns did great execution, not least in a protracted duel with the Moltke and the Seydlitz, but the crowning moment of the battle was the destruction of the heavy cruiser Blucher, whose loss was captured on camera and prompted many a wartime artist’s impression of her dying moments. However, the Tiger, in common with Beatty’s flagship the Lion, did not escape unscathed, as evidenced by her Captain’s description of the time when she received her third hit from a large calibre shell:

‘Tiger steered in the direction of the fleeing enemy and then, at this very critical moment, when quick decision had to be made, when the great speed of the Germans meant that every second brought them nearer to safety, there occurred a very large explosion which rattled us all in the conning-tower very considerably. It appeared that a shell had entered the Intelligence Office, which was immediately below the conning-tower, and having exploded there, blew up through the gun control tower, rendering everybody in it hors de combat and killing Engineer Captain Taylor and six men, and wounding three Officers and six men.’