The important 'Royal Yacht' M.V.O., Great War 'Coastal Motor Boats' D.S.C., Anglo-Persian...

The important ‘Royal Yacht’ M.V.O., Great War ‘Coastal Motor Boats’ D.S.C., Anglo-Persian Naval Mission 1920, and Second War Posthumous M.I.D. group of thirteen awarded to Captain R. F. J. Onslow, Royal Navy, who gained his posthumous mention for gallant services as Captain of the aircraft carrier H.M.S. Hermes when she was bombed and sunk by Japanese aircraft in April 1942 The Royal Victorian Order, M.V.O., Member’s 4th Class breast badge, silver-gilt, gold and enamels, the reverse officially numbered ‘1389’; Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R., hallmarked London 1918; 1914-15 Star (S. Lt. R. F. J. Onslow, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. R. F. J. Onslow. R.N.); Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Iraq 1919-1920 (Lieut. R. F. J. Onslow. R.N.); Coronation 1937; Russia, Empire, Order of St Stanislas, breast badge with swords, silver-gilt and enamels, of continental manufacture, badly chipped, these last eight mounted as worn; together with 1939-45 Star, Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Burma Star, War Medal, with M.I.D. oak leaf, good very fine or better, the N.G.S. rare (13) £6,000-£8,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- M.V.O. 4th Class London Gazette 1 January 1938: Commander of H.M. Yacht Victoria and Albert (dated 29 July 1937). D.S.C. London Gazette 20 September 1918: ‘For services in the Auxiliary Patrol, Minesweeping and Coastal Motor Boats, between the 1st January and 30th June, 1918.’ The recommendation states: ‘For consistent good service in C.M.B.s on the Belgian Coast over a period of months. He was in command of a C.M.B. in the operation on the 4 February, 1918, when mines were laid in the Ostend approaches, which subsequently sank enemy Torpedo Boat A10.’ Russian Order of St Stanislaus: C.W. 10241 of 1920. ‘Granted permission to accept and wear ribbon of the Russian Order of St Stanislaus 3rd Class with swords.’ M.I.D. (Posthumous) London Gazette 10 November 1942: ‘For great bravery when H.M.S. Hermes was sunk by Japanese aircraft.’ The Admiralty letter forwarding the M.I.D. certificate to his widow in November 1942 states: ‘I am commanded by my Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty to send you the enclosed Certificate of a Mention in Despatches, awarded by the King to your husband, Captain Richard Francis John Onslow, M.V.O., D.S.C., R.N., for distinguished service in the action in which he lost his life. H.M.S. HERMES was bombed and sunk by Japanese aircraft in April, 1942. Captain Onslow handled and fought his ship with the utmost determination to the last in the face of an overwhelming attack.’ The life and loss of the Hermes On 9 April 1942 H.M.S. Hermes, the Royal Navy’s first purpose-built aircraft carrier, was steaming north up the east coast of Ceylon returning to Trincomalee in company with the Australian destroyer H.M.A.S. Vampire when the two ships were spotted by a reconnaissance aircraft from the Japanese ship Haruna. Within an hour Admiral Nagumo launched a force of some 85 dive bombers against Hermes and Vampire which at the time were without any air cover; 15 minutes after the attack started both ships had been hit many times and sank. A total of 306 (307 according to some sources) officers, ratings and Royal Marines of Hermes’s crew of some 600 lost their lives, including the ship’s commander, Captain R. F. J. Onslow, M.V.O., D.S.C., though the ship went down less than five miles off the coast. Hermes was the ninth ship of the Royal Navy to carry the name. She was built by Armstrong-Whitworth on Tyneside and was launched in September 1919, nine months after she was laid down. She completed her trials in 1923. Hermes was a small ship by modern standards, with a normal displacement of 10,950 tons (12,900 fully loaded) and a length of just under 600 feet. Her speed was 25 knots and she was built to carry 15 to 20 aircraft. Her complement was 551 to 664 excluding aircrew and her armament six 5.5-inch guns, four 4-inch guns and nine 2-pdr anti-aircraft guns. Hermes spent most of the period from 1925-35 on the China Station, based at Hong Kong. She returned to home waters in 1933 for a long refit at Devonport and on 1 November 1934, she was re-commissioned for service again on the China Station. She was placed in the Reserve Fleet at Devonport in 1937 and later was used as a training ship for the Fleet Air Arm in 1938-39. When war was declared in September 1939 Hermes was immediately put into service on Atlantic patrols searching for U-boats. She was also involved, together with ships of the French fleet, in searching for the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee. In late October Hermes and her accompanying French destroyers captured the German supply ship Santa Fe which her crew attempted to scuttle by opening the sea cocks before taking to their boats. Hermes returned to port at Dakar, Senegal, with her prize following at reduced speed. After a refit at Plymouth in early 1940 Hermes returned to the Dakar station and was for a period transferred from there to the east coast of Africa where she captured several Italian ships, including the Leonardo Da Vinci, which were leaving the port of Mogadishu with valuables. Captain Richard Onslow took over the command of Hermes from Captain Fitzroy E. P. Hutton on 25 May 1940. When France fell in June 1940 the governor of Senegal declared that the colony was pro the French Vichy government and Hermes was ordered to leave Dakar at only a few hours’ notice and take up a position to blockade the port since former allies were now regarded as enemies. The French battleship Richelieu, one of the most modern and powerful warships in the world, had sailed into Dakar a few days earlier and there was some on-board speculation that she might follow and try to sink Hermes. Captain Onslow was appointed acting rear admiral for the period 7 to 11 July 1940, making Hermes the temporary flagship of the small British squadron now on patrol off Dakar. On 3 July a British fleet had carried out a pre-emptive attack on units of the French navy at Mers-el-Kebir in Algeria, and four days later Hermes issued an ultimatum to the French admiral at Dakar. When no reply was received by the specified deadline, a plan to attack Richelieu inside Dakar harbour with depth charges was put into action. Shortly before midnight Hermes’s 25-foot motor boat, which had been painted black, loaded with four depth charges and manned by a volunteer crew of ten men, slipped away from Hermes, passed over the harbour boom and with some difficulty in the dark found their target. The depth charges were dropped under Richelieu’s stern where, despite being triggered, they failed to explode. The motor boat, pursued by a French vessel which became caught up in the boom nets, eventually returned safely to Hermes. Shortly before dawn on 8 July six Swordfish aircraft from Hermes launched an attack and one of their torpedoes is thought to have detonated the depth charges, making a 60ft hole in Richelieu that resulted in some flooding and caused her stern to sink to the bottom; she was pumped out after a few days and made seaworthy for emergency service. In the London Gazette of 6 September 1940 the following awards for ‘bravery and skill in operations off Dakar’ were announced to men who crewed the motor boat: Distinguished Service Order to Lieutenant Commander Robert H. Bristowe; Distinguished Service Cross to Commissioned Gunner Frederick W. Grant; Distinguished Service Medals to E.R.A. 2nd Class Cyril Ford and Acting Leading Seaman Patrick J. Kearns;