A Great War D.S.M. group of five awarded to Chief Engine Room Artificer J. H. Green, Royal Navy, for services in the Q-ship Tamarisk when she engaged and sank a German submarine

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (270984 J. H. Green, E.R.A. 2Cl. Off S.W. Coast England. 1 Dec. 1916) several minor official corrections to naming; 1914-15 Star (270984 E.R.A.2, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (270984 E.R.A.2, R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (270984 Act. C.E.R.A. 2Cl. H.M.S. Sarepta) light contact marks, otherwise good very fine (5) £1800-2200

D.S.M. London Gazette 23 March 1917.

James Hutley Green was born at Falmouth, Cornwall, on 24 April 1882. He was a fitter and turner prior to joining the Royal Navy in March 1903 as an Acting Engine Room Artificer 4th Class. By the outbreak of war he had advanced to E.R.A. 2nd Class and served aboard the torpedo boat destroyer Panther in the eary years of the war. In July 1916 he joined the Q-ship Q-11, also known as Tamarisk, a converted sloop newly commissioned to this dangerous employment. Her first incident occurred in November 1916 when she was shelled by a submarine at long range, thereby forcing Tamarisk to declare herself and reply, whereupon the enemy beat a retreat and dived. Up to this time the excellent Q-ship gunnery had depended on the fact that first-class men had been selected who would be able at short range to score hits with the first or second rounds. But this incident of the Tamarisk, involving at least 6,000 yards range, showed that a small range-finder would be very useful in such circumstances, and this was accordingly supplied.

Shortly afterwards, on 1 December 1916, Tamarisk successfully engaged and sank a German submarine. Details of this action and the identity of the submarine have not yet been located but other awards included the D.S.O. for Tamarisk’s skipper, Lieutenant-Commander John W. Williams, R.N.R., and the D.S.C. for Acting Lieutenant Francis C. Pretty, R.N.R., both awards being announced in the above London Gazette.

Green remained in Tamarisk until March 1918, when he joined the newly fitted-out Q-ship Wexford Coast, in which he served through to the end of the war. In March 1919 he joined H.M.S. Serepta at Portland, the Royal Navy’s new centre of anti-submarine activities, and here received his long service medal in February 1920. He was finally ‘Shore Pensioned’ as a C.E.R.A. 1st Class on 12 July 1926.