The superb Great War C.B.E., Gallipoli 'Y' Beach D.S.O. group of six awarded to Commander...

The superb Great War C.B.E., Gallipoli ‘Y’ Beach D.S.O. group of six awarded to Commander A. St. V. Keyes, Royal Navy: the brother of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes, his other claims to fame included service as a pioneer submariner in the Edwardian era, command of the Royal Canadian Navy’s first ever submarine flotilla in 1914, and the successful beaching of the ‘Q’ ship Mavis after she had been torpedoed in June 1917 The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, C.B.E. (Military) Commander’s 1st type neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels; Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamels, with integral top riband bar; 1914-15 Star (Lt. Commr. A. St. V. Keyes, D.S.O. R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. A. St. V. Keyes. R.N.); Coronation 1911, good very fine and better (6) £9,000-£12,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, September 2004. C.B.E. London Gazette 11 June 1919. D.S.O. London Gazette 16 August 1915: ‘In recognition of services as mentioned in the foregoing despatch.’ The despatch referred to was that of Vice-Admiral Sir John de Robeck, describing the landings on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 25-26 April 1915, and included General Sir Ian Hamilton’s report, which stated that ‘Lieutenant-Commander Keyes showed great coolness, gallantry and ability. The success of the landing on ‘Y’ Beach was largely due to his good service. When circumstances compelled the force landed there to re-embark, this officer showed exceptional resource and leadership in successfully conducting that difficult operation.’ Adrian St. Vincent Keyes was born in Secunderabad, India in December 1882, the son of General Sir Charles Keyes, G.C.B., and was appointed a Midshipman in May 1898 on passing out of the R.N. College Britannia. Advanced to Sub. Lieutenant in December 1901, and to Lieutenant in the following year, he joined the Royal Navy’s fledgling submarine branch in May 1903, in which trade he served more or less continuously until 1909, latterly with his own command - although his service record does note that he incurred their Lordships displeasure at the end of 1905 for some damage caused to the engine of H.M. submarine B3. Having survived this undoubtedly hazardous stint of “underwater service”, young Keyes returned to more regular seagoing duties, and in 1910, the year in which he was advanced to Lieutenant-Commander, he was appointed captain of the destroyer H.M.S. Fawn. According to a contemporary, although blessed with a ‘quick and brilliant brain’, Keyes was fortunate to squeeze through his destroyer C.O’s course - worse for wear as the result of a bad hangover, he bought a copy of The Daily Mail on his way to his final examination, and quickly memorised ‘the time of moon-rise, sunrise, high-water at Tower Bridge, and any other meteorological data the paper propounded’, thereby impressing their Lordships with his remarkably up-to-date knowledge. Interestingly, it was about this time that his brother, Roger, then a Captain, R.N., became senior officer of the submarine branch, an appointment that would act as the springboard to his rapid advancement in the Great War. For his own part, after another seagoing command, the Basilisk, Adrian Keyes was placed on the Retired List in June 1912. The outbreak of hostilities in 1914 found him out in Canada, where he was quickly appointed to the command of the Royal Canadian Navy’s first submarine flotilla, at Shearwater Island, in the rank of Lieutenant-Commander, the force comprising a brace of Holland-type submarines that had just been purchased by the somewhat eccentric Sir Richard McBride, K.C.M.G., the conservative premier of British Columbia - they had originally been built for the Chilean Navy in 1913. Duly christened the CC1 and CC2, Keyes took command of the former, while the latter went to another retired R.N. Officer, Lieutenant Bertram Jones. They were interesting days, not least since all of the labels and instructions in the two submarines were in Spanish. But Keyes and Jones showed great ingenuity in the face of adversity, even making some wooden torpedoes for battle practice until some real ones could be delivered from Toronto. Their respective crews, meanwhile, were packed off to Victoria public baths to practice underwater escape methods. In fact such rapid progress was made with the flotilla’s training programme that Keyes was in a position to sanction its first patrol, a 24-hour run down the Strait of Juan de Fuca, by the end of September 1914. Realistically, however, he realised that his chances of seeing combat in the immediate future were slim, so in January 1915, he successfully applied for an appointment in the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. Before his departure, however, he was presented with a splendid gold pocket watch by the CC1’s crew. Happily, as luck would have it, he joined his brother Roger - by now Chief of Staff to Vice-Admiral Sir John de Robeck - in H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth, the Admiral’s flagship, as ‘additional for disembarkation duties’, Roger noting in his memoirs how delighted he was to hear of the appointment. Indeed he would also describe in his memoir the events that took place at ‘Y’ Beach on 25-26 April 1915, and the subsequent deeds of his brother, Adrian: ‘There was to be another subsidiary landing on the western flank of the Peninsula at ‘Y’ beach by the Scottish Borderers, the Plymouth Division of the Royal Marines - borrowed from the Naval Division - and a company of the South Wales Borderers ... This landing was to be conducted by my brother Adrian, who had trained the troops to a high state of efficiency in boat work and speedy silent landing ...’ Although the ‘landing proceeded exactly as planned’, subsequent Turkish assaults penetrated the British line, and, at length, the military commanders offshore ordered that the beach be evacuated. Roger Keyes continues: ‘The captain of the destroyer Wolverine was killed on the morning of the 28th; she was a sister ship to the Basilisk, which my brother Adrian had commanded just before he retired, so the Admiral gave him the vacancy. Adrian could not be found until the following day, as after his ‘Y’ Beach had been given up, he attached himself to the troops which were to assault Achi Baba, where he was to establish a naval observation station directly it was captured. He came aboard to report himself on the 29th. I think his feelings were mixed; he said he could hardly bear to tear himself away from the Army. We could get very little out of him, except his intense admiration for the 29th Division and his sorrow at seeing most of the officers of the Scottish Borderers, with whom he had made great friends, killed alongside him. We gathered from him that Brigadier-General Marshall, who was wounded on the 25th but remained in action, like the two Brigadiers of the Division, was always in the thick of every action. I think my brother’s condition was typical of that of the 29th Division - dead dog-tired. He had been fighting incessantly since the 25th, and had hardly slept since the night of the 23rd. His new ship was undergoing repairs, half of her bridge having been shot away, when her captain was killed, so I made him lie on my bed, where he lay like a log for several hours ...’ Adrian Keyes was duly decorated for his work with the Army, three senior military commanders remarking how glad they were to hear of his D.S.O. And he went on to perform ster...