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Auction: 26002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 167

The 'Royal Naval Siege Guns' 1918 D.S.O. group of five awarded to Paymaster Captain H. P. Williams, Royal Navy, who additionally saw service at Zeebrugge with Attentive and at Murmansk during the Russian Civil War

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., with integral top ribbon bar; 1914-15 Star (Asst. Payr. H.P. Williams. R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Payr. Lt. Cr. H. P. Williams. R.N.); France, Third Republic, Croix de Guerre, bronze, reverse dated 1914-1918, with silver star emblem on riband, mounted as worn, light contact marks, very fine and better (5)

D.S.O. London Gazette 7 June 1918, the original recommendation states:

'For services with the Royal Naval Siege Guns on shore in Flanders from July 1917 to February 1918. He has shown personal bravery, sound judgment, and great devotion to duty and in addition to his regular duties has performed executive officers' work, which required technical skill and judgment.'

Croix de Guerre London Gazette 7 August 1918.

Henry Prosser Williams was born on 21 August 1884 at Whitchurch, Pembrokeshire, the son of Samson and Catharine Williams. He entered the Royal Navy on 15 January 1902 and passed his paymaster course on 21 August 1905.

Prior to the Great War, Williams was predominately shore based apart from a posting to Lord Nelson on 30 April 1914. He joined the battleship Marlboro on 29 December 1914 and was still with her when the Battle of Jutland was fought from 31 May to 1 August 1916. During the action she landed hits on the light cruiser Wiesbaden and the battleship Grosser Kurfurst, although the former returned the favour with a heavy hit to her boiler room from a torpedo. Marlboro was to survive the action and Williams left her on 8 September 1916, going ashore prior to being posted to Boadicea as Acting Paymaster 1 October 1916, one of seven scout cruisers in her class.

Williams was finally posted to Attentive on 12 March 1917. Attentive screened the raiding force during the Zeebrugge Raid on 25 April 1918 and recovered part of the ship's crew of the concrete-filled cruiser Sirius after she had detonated her demolition charges. Later that year the ship began escorting convoys to Gibraltar. She spent a few months off Murmansk in North Russia supporting British forces intervening in the Russian Civil War, and was paid off in December 1918. It was during the period up to February 1918 that Williams was rewarded with the D.S.O.

Williams was promoted Paymaster Lieutenant Commander on 5 October 1918 and posted to Attentive II, the shore base for the Dover Patrol; this was his final wartime appointment. Further promotions followed to Paymaster Commander on 21 August 1923 and finally Captain on 21 August 1934.

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Estimate
£1,000 to £1,400

Starting price
£800