‘At about 0830 on 20 April 1949, I was closed up on ‘A’ gun and I heard single rifle shots followed by a burst of machine-gun bullets from the north bank. This was followed by the whine of shells passing overhead and splashes on the port bow. Some thirty minutes later I heard an explosion amidships. The gun was loaded, but could not follow the Director as the gun could not be brought to bear. I heard an explosion below the gun and several more around the ship. The First Lieutenant then ordered us to join the Medical Party until 1100 when I was ordered to abandon ship. Shells were coming inboard causing casualties at frequent intervals.’

The statement of Able Seaman D. C. Gill to the Admiralty Board of Inquiry.


The Naval General Service Medal awarded to Able Seaman D. C. Gill, who was present in H.M.S. Amethyst at the Yangtze incident
Naval General Service 1915-62, 2 clasps, Yangtze 1949, Malaya (D/SSX. 818721 D. C. Gill, Ord. Smn., R.N.), in its card box of issue, heavily polished, thus fine £1800-2200

Donald Clifford Gill was born in Harrogate, Yorkshire, in February 1929 and entered the Royal Navy as an Ordinary Seaman in November 1946. Advanced to Able Seaman while serving at the Hong Kong base Tamar in July 1947, he joined H.M.S. Amethyst in October of the following year and was similarly employed at the time of the Yangtze incident. Gill came ashore in March 1954, when he was enrolled in the Royal Fleet Reserve, but was discharged on the reduction of the R.F.R. in March 1957.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, comprising:

(i) The recipient’s Certificate of Service; Recommendations for Advancement and Conduct Record Sheet; Torpedo History Sheet; Radar Plot History Sheet; Interim Trade Certificate; and Certificate for Wounds and Hurts, for a broken thumb, H.M.S. Nelson, dated 27 March 1947.
(ii) A programme for ‘A Dinner to meet the Ship’s Company of H.M.S. Amethyst / Given by the Directors of the “News of the World” / Dorchester Hotel, 16th November 1949’, with multiple autographs including Lieutenant-Commander J. S. Kerans, D.S.O., Lieutenant G. L. Weston, D.S.C. and Telegraphist J. L. French, D.S.M.; a souvenir dinner menu for another Amethyst gathering held by the Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce at the Rock’s Embassy Club on 24 October 1949, this, too, with multiple autographs; a City of Plymouth ‘Return of H.M.S. Amethyst’ luncheon menu for 1 November 1949, with related invitation, and a letter from the Mayor Harrogate regarding a reception to mark the safe return of Gill, 2 November 1949.
(iii) A colour photograph of H.M.S. Amethyst in card ‘Lok Cheong Studio’ mount, together with one or two publicity photographs taken at events back in the U.K.; a copy of the Sunday Herald Pictorial, 7 August 1949, with assorted images of Amethyst and her crew; an illustrated pamphlet, ‘The Glorious Story of H.M.S. Amethyst - The Official Pictorial Record’, with Gill marked in a group photograph of ‘survivors of the first attack on H.M.S. Amethyst on their arrival at Shanghai’; and Gill’s Amethyst Association membership card, circa 1986.