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Auction: 25112 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 488

The campaign group of six awarded to Captain (Paymaster) S. T. Beardsworth, Royal Navy, who was killed in action at the sinking of H.M.S. Prince of Wales, at that time holding the post of Commodore's Secretary to Admiral Tom Phillips, who also went down with his ship on 10 December 1941

British War and Victory Medals (Payr. Mid. S. T. Beardsworth. R.N.), these mounted as worn; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Pacific Star; War Medal 1939-45, good very fine (6)

Stanley Thomas Beardsworth was born on 20 September 1899 at Spilsby, Lincolnshire and was educated at Christ's Hospital, playing for the Cricket 2nd XI. Having done clerical work for the Lincoln Tribunal, he passed for a Naval cadetship and was first appointed Assistant Clerk in January 1917. He was made Clerk in January 1918 and Acting Assistant Paymaster by July 1919. During the Great War he served in the battleship Emperor of India, which had been under the command of Captain Royds - of Antarctic fame with Scott's Discovery expedition and the Cape which bears his name - from January 1917 to undergo his training. His boss gave three positive reports as to his work.

By the time of the Second World War, he was made Secretary to the Vice-Chief of Naval Staff in June 1939 and then to the Deputy Chief by September 1939, having been Commodore's Secretary to Admiral Phillips since April 1939.

The National Museum of the Royal Navy gives more detail:

'On 10th December 1941, the Royal Navy ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse were attacked and sunk by aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy, with the loss of 842 men, in what was one of the worst disasters in British naval history.

Their sinking sent shock waves through the country and occurred just days after Pearl Harbour. The loss shocked the nation and at that time forced the navy to re-evaluate how they had fought for centuries. Now air power was the key to projecting maritime power and today, the Royal Navy’s Carrier Strike Group is a legacy of this shift in focus.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously recalled in his post-war memoirs:

'In all the war, I never received a more direct shock... As I turned over and twisted in bed the full horror of the news sank in upon me. There were no British or American ships in the Indian Ocean or the Pacific except the American survivors of Pearl Harbour, who were hastening back to California. Across this vast expanse of waters, Japan was supreme, and we everywhere were weak and naked.''

Beardsworth was killed in action and would appear to be third - after Admiral Phillips & Captain Leach - in seniority of those to perish. There were reports he together with Phillips and Leach were last seen walking down the listing port side, the direction in which she was about to capsize (Singapore Burning by Colin Smith refers). He is commemorated upon the Plymouth Naval Memorial; sold together with copied research.

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Sold for
£700

Starting price
£170