Five: Chief Petty Officer C. V. Gosney, Royal Navy

1914-15 Star (216387 P.O., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (216387 P.O., R.N.); Royal Victorian Medal, E.VII.R., bronze, sometime gilded, unnamed as issued; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (216387 P.O., H.M.S. Hercules), together with a fine quality C.P.O’s cap badge, light contact marks, edge bruising and polished, otherwise good fine or better (6) £180-220

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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Charles Victor Gosney was born at Southampton, Hampshire in May 1886 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in August 1901. Awarded his R.V.M. for services as a member of Excellent’s gun-carriage contingent at Edward VII’s funeral, he was a Leading Seaman aboard the battleship King George V by the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914. Following service ashore at Victory and Excellent in the first half of 1915, Gosney was advanced to Petty Officer and joined the battleship Agincourt, and remained in her until the end of the War, a period that encompassed her participation in the Battle of Jutland. Fawcett and Hooper describe several lucky escapes she had from enemy torpedoes on that memorable day in The Fighting at Jutland:

‘As far as Agincourt was concerned, our excitement started at 7.08 p.m., when with a sharp turn of the ship a torpedo passed just under our stern, and later on another broke surface about 150 yards short on our starboard beam. At 7.35 p.m. the tracks of two more torpedoes were reported approaching on the starboard side, but by good co-operation between the fore-top and the conning tower they were both avoided. Aloft the tracks were clearly visible, and acting on the reports from there the ship was gradually turned away, so that by perfect timing one torpedo passed up the port side and one the starboard side; after which we resumed our place in the line. A fifth torpedo was successfully dodged by zigzagging at 7.47 p.m., but after this we had no further excitements. We ourselves had no opportunity to fire torpedoes at the enemy, but fired 144 shells from our 12-inch turrets and from our secondary armament (6-inch guns) 111 shells.’

Awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in May 1919, Gosney transferred to the submarine branch in March 1922, from which he was finally pensioned ashore as a Chief Petty Officer in May 1926.