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Auction: 24111 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 596

'I have the honour to draw your attention to the behaviour of my ship's company, or rather what was left of them. It was simply splendid. I can find no other word for it. When the ship had gone down, and we were all in the water, the men were singing, "Tipperary" and a hail of "Are we downhearted?" drew the usual reply from all hands. When they were not singing, they were cheering … '

Commander Maurice Blackwood, D.S.O., R.N., late captain of the Q-ship Stonecrop, pays tribute to his gallant crew, among them teenager Ernest Cowling.

A notable Great War Q-ship campaign and long service group of three awarded to Stoker 1st Class E. S. H. Cowling, Royal Navy

Having emerged unscathed from a close encounter with the U-67 as a 17-year-old rating in the Q-2 off Norway in December 1916, he was fortunate indeed to survive the loss of the Q-ship Stonecrop in September 1917, when the latter was torpedoed off Ireland by the U-43

In what became a famous chapter of Q-ship history, some of her crew subsequently survived the ordeal after a week adrift in a hastily made raft, a story movingly recalled in the pages Q Boat Encounters, by Harold Auten, V.C.

British War and Victory Medals (J. 43634 E. S. H. Cowling, Ord., R.N.); Royal Fleet Reserve L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., coinage bust (SS. 125052 (Dev. B. 12151) E. S. H. Cowling, Sto. 1, R.F.R.), mounted as worn, very fine (3)

Ernest Stanley Herbert Cowling was born at Torquay, Devon on 29 June 1899 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in September 1915.

Opening shots

His first seagoing appointment, as a 17-year-old boy rating, was of the perilous kind, for in July 1916 he joined the Q-Ship service with an appointment in the Q-2 (a.k.a. Waitomo and Intaba), and he remained likewise employed until May 1917.

On 8 December 1916, Q-2 was engaged by the U-67 off Norway and sustained five direct hits. One of Cowling's shipmates was killed, and others wounded, but Q-2 made it back to port.

In Peril on the Sea

His next appointment was aboard another Q-ship, the Stonecrop (a.k.a. Donlevon and Glenfoyle), which commenced in May 1917 and ended in heavy loss of life off Ireland on the 18 September 1917, when she was torpedoed by the U-43.

Commanded by the 'sometimes fiery' Maurice Blackwood, D.S.O., R.N., Stonecrop had fought a classic Q-ship action against the U-151 on the previous day, when she obtained numerous hits on her adversary, an action described at length by Harold Auten in his Q Boat Adventures.

Auten likewise describes Stonecrop's final action just 24 hours later, in which she was torpedoed by the U-43. The resultant explosion demolished the bridge, wheelhouse and wireless office and instantly killed five ratings and, within a short space of time, the Stonecrop slipped beneath the waves. The surviving crew took to two boats and a raft but because of the destruction of the wireless office it had not been possible to send out an S.O.S. message. Blackwood sent off one of the boats to summon help from land and his own boat, having become separated from the raft in heavy seas, was rescued by a passing steamer on the 20th.

The fate of those who took to the raft - three officers and 20 ratings - was less fortunate. As each day passed, with no sign of any help, their numbers dwindled on account of the cold, exposure and lack of water; madness, too. Finally, nearly a week after the loss of the Stonecrop, just two surviving officers and eight ratings were rescued from the raft by a patrol boat.

As Auten concludes:

'Out of a total complement of ninety-nine (11 officers and 88 men) that had manned the Stonecrop, four officers and forty men had lost their lives.'

Postscript

Young Cowling transferred to the destroyer Tarpon in March 1918 and remained similarly employed until April 1919. Having then come ashore as a Stoker 1st Class in June 1922, he joined the Royal Fleet Reserve and was awarded the L.S. & G.C. Medal in 1934.

Finally discharged from the R.F.R. at Devenport in the summer of 1939, Cowling died in Torquay in April 1984.

Sold with the recipient's sailor's ditty box, with brass nameplate 'E. S. H. Cowling', the contents comprising:

(i)
The recipient's parchment Certificate of Service, with verification of his Q-ship appointments.

(ii)
Several Great War period photographs, including a portrait of the recipient in uniform.

(iii)
His Holy Bible, with presentation inscription from the Chelston Wesleyan Sunday School, wishing him well in the Royal Navy and dated 16 October 1915.

(iv)
A printed 'In Memoriam' poem, written in memory of Cowling's shipmate who was killed in Q-2's engagement with the U-67 off Norway on 8 December 1916, namely Ordinary Seaman William 'Ginger' Kinnaird.

(v)
Three Royal Antediluvian Order of the Buffaloes' certificates, all inscribed to the recipient and dating from the 1920s and 30s, together with two silver-gilt and enamel breast badges from Lodge 229 in Devonshire, named and dated 1925 and 1938, the latter for his appointment as 'Primo'.


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Sold for
£380

Starting price
£110