Orders, Decorations and Medals

Admiral Sir Charles Henry Lawrence Woodhouse, K.C.B., Royal Navy, who commanded H.M.S. Ajax at the battle of the River Plate, 13 December 1939
Riband bar, pin-backed, bearing the ribbons: Order of the Bath; 1914-15 Star; British War Medal 1914-20; Victory Medal 1914-19; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Italy Star; Defence Medal; War Medal 1939-45; Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937; unknown watered dark blue ribbon, slight signs of wear, fairly good condition £50-70

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Ribbons from the Collection of the late Judge Henry Pownall.

View
Collection

Charles Henry Lawrence Woodhouse was born on 9 July 1893 and was educated at R.N. Colleges Osborne and Dartmouth. Entering the Royal Navy, he was appointed a Captain in 1934. Woodhouse was Captain of the cruiser Ajax during the battle of the River Plate, 13 December 1939. The squadron of cruisers, Exeter, Ajax and Achilles commanded by Commodore Harwood from the Ajax, successfully engaged the German ‘pocket battleship’ Graf Spee in the action. Harried, outmanoeuvred and significantly damaged, the Graf Spee entered the neutral port of Montevideo, Uruguay. Ultimately deceived by reports of a British naval build up off the port, the Graf Spee was scuttled on 17 December. For his part in the action, Captain Woodhouse was awarded the C.B. Post-war he was C-in-C. East Indies Station, 1948-50; was appointed a K.C.B. in 1949. He retired from the service in 1950 and was promoted to Admiral on the Retired List in 1952. Admiral Woodhouse died on 23 September 1978.

Sold with a card bearing the signature, ‘C H L Woodhouse H.M.S. Ajax 13 12 39’; together with a hand-written letter from his widow, Barbara Woodhouse, to a Mr Woodcock, which accompanied the above riband bar; With copied photograph of Captain Woodhouse being greeted by the Mayor of Plymouth in 1940; with some copied research.