Six: Chief Stoker T. Gately, Royal Navy

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (Lg. Sto. 1 Cl., H.M.S. Magicienne); Africa General Service 1902-56, 2 clasps, Jubaland, Somaliland 1908-10 (Lg. Sto. 1 Cl., H.M.S. Magicienne); 1914-15 Star (167899 Ch. Sto., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (167899 Ch. Sto., R.N.), surname spelt ‘Gateley’ on these three; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., E.VII.R. (167899 Ch. Sto., H.M.S. Theseus), clasps sewn on the second, the earlier awards with contact wear and edge bruising, thus fine or better, the Great War awards very fine and better, extremely rare (6) £300-400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals for Services at Sea from the Collection of the Late Oliver Stirling Lee.

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Of a little over 100 Africa General Service 1902-56 Medals issued to the Royal Navy with two clasps, just six of them had the combination “Jubaland” and “Somaliland 1908-10”; the published rolls confirm the above described award - and the recipient’s Queen’s South Africa Medal - but state that duplicates were issued in both cases, while his service record confirms the same, stating that he received them while serving aboard H.M.S. Impregnable in January 1904.

Timothy Gately was born at Widnes, Lancashire in May 1873 and entered the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in July 1892. He subsequently witnessed active service aboard the Magicienne off South Africa during the Boer War, and again in the Jubaland operations of 1900, when he was landed with the Naval Brigade, and, as outlined above, received duplicate awards for these services in early 1904. Adding his L.S. & G.C. Medal to these honours in July 1907, he went on to earn a second clasp to his Africa General Service Medal for services aboard the Diana in the Somaliland operations of 1908-10.

Gately was pensioned ashore as a Chief Stoker in the summer of 1914, but was instantly recalled that August and initially served aboard the Merchant Fleet Auxiliary’s Pekin. Then, following an appointment ashore, he served in the Mediterranean in the cruiser St. George from January 1916 until January 1917, when he came ashore for a final time and ended the War based at Vivid II. He was demobilised in February 1919.