Three: Able Seaman E. Wells, H.M.S. Acasta, Royal Navy

1914-15 Star (J.13891, E. Wells, A.B., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (J.13891 E. Wells. A.B. R.N.) contact marks, nearly very fine (3) £80-£120

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals for the Battle of Jutland.

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The destroyer H.M.S. Acasta was launched on 10 September 1912 and was part of the 3rd Battle Cruiser Squadron at the Battle of Jutland, where she was hit and badly holed.

Edward Wells was born in Lymington, Hampshire, on 22 November 1895 and joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on 18 September 1911. Advanced Able Seaman on 7 August 1914, he served during the Great War in H.M.S. Acasta from 27 December 1915 to 30 June 1916. At Jutland the destroyer Acasta, under the command of Lieutenant-Commander John Barron, went to the assistance of Loftus Jones, V.C., in the Shark, but was famously rebuffed by the latter’s plea, “Don’t get sunk for us!” - even in the time taken for this brief exchange she was hit badly fore and aft. Worse was to follow when the Lutzow came up on Acasta’s port bow, the light cruiser’s secondary armament unleashing a ‘storm of shell’ at the inferior destroyer, a storm to which was added the combined fire-power of fast approaching enemy battle-cruisers and destroyers:
‘For 20 minutes the Acasta endured a withering fire ... Hit repeatedly, a shell burst in the engine room, killing or wounding the Engineer Officer and four men, and cutting several steam pipes. The engine room became filled with a scalding steam and had to be evacuated. As the steering-gear was shot away, Barron was unable to steer or to stop his engines until 6.30 ... As the Acasta lay stopped she was passed within a few hundred yards by division after division of battleships steaming at full speed into the action. Some passed to port some to starboard ... “We passed a disabled destroyer on our starboard bow, very close to us,” writes an officer in the Marlborough. “She was badly holed forward and aft, and was much down by the bows, but the crew were clustered aft cheering us and the other ships as we passed, and then disappeared astern, rolling heavily in the wash of the Battle Fleet, but with her ensign still flying, apparently not done for yet.” The Galatea and Fearless stood by Acasta for a time; but she eventually managed to get moving at a slow speed, and made off to the westward ... ’ (Endless Story refers).