North Eastern Railway’s St. John Ambulance Association Medal for the Bombardment of Hartlepool 1914, obverse Maltese Cross, ‘North Eastern Railway Centre St. J.A.A.’, reverse inscribed (name engraved), ‘Presented to Reginald H. Sanderson in recognition of First Aid Services rendered during the Bombardment of the Hartlepools, December 16th 1914, Alex Kaye Butterworth President’, 28mm., silver, hallmarks for Birmingham 1914, ring suspension, no ribbon, very fine £200-250

In an effort to draw out a portion of the Royal Navy which could then be destroyed by superior forces, a series of raids were planned and executed by the German High Seas Fleet on the east coast of England. The raids had the added bonus of showing the impunity in which the coast of England could be attacked despite the vaunted strength of the Royal Navy. The raid of 16 December 1914 saw the bombardment of the seaside towns of Scarborough, Whitby and Hartlepool. The bombardment of Hartlepool was conducted by the battlecruisers Seydlitz and Moltke and the armoured cruiser Blücher, part of the 1st Scouting Group of the High Seas Fleet under the command of Vice-Admiral Franz Hipper. Unlike Scarborough and Whitby which had no military significance, Hartlepool was a valuable shipbuilding port and did possess a shore battery supported by two scout cruisers, four destroyers and a submarine. The bombardment began at 8.03 am and lasted for 50 minutes with over 1,000 shells hitting the town. The cost to the town was high, with 102 people (mostly civilian) dead and 467 wounded. Aboard the Blücher hits were scored by the Heugh shore battery, killing nine sailors and wounding two. In the immediate aftermath, heavy units of both the British and German fleets managed to avoid each other and the attack went unpunished. A month later, in an attempt to repeat the attack, German battlecruisers under Vice-Admiral Hipper were intercepted by those of Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty. In the resultant battle of Dogger Bank, 24 January 1915, the German armoured cruiser Blücher was sunk. Alexander Kaye Butterworth (1854-1946) was General Manager of the North Eastern Railway, 1906-21 - he was knighted in 1914.