The 1914-15 Star awarded to Petty Officer S. J. C. Kenchington, Royal Navy, who was taken prisoner when the Submarine E15 ran aground in the Sea of Marmara and was disabled by Turkish gunfire in April 1915

1914-15 Star (183194. S. J. C. Kenchington, P.O., R.N.) good very fine £70-£90

Sidney James Cromwell Kenchington was born at Fordingbridge, Hampshire on 19 June 1879, and joined the Royal Navy on 23 March 1899. He passed for Petty Officer in October 1908 and was confirmed in the rate on 27 February 1911. He joined the submarine service in July 1914, being posted to H.M.S. Dolphin and later assigned to H.M. Submarine E15 on 1 April 1915. His record of service carries the note ‘missing as the result of the loss of submarine E15 in Dardanelles reported believed to be a prisoner of war’ and is stamped ‘Repatriated NP 13996 1918’.

During World War I, E15 served in the Mediterranean, participating in the Gallipoli Campaign against the Ottoman Empire. On 16 April 1915, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Theodore S. Brodie, E15 sailed from her base at Mudros and attempted to break through the Dardanelles to the Sea of Marmara. Early in the morning of 17 April, the submarine, having dived too deep and become caught in the vicious current, ran aground some ten miles in near Kepez Point, directly under the guns of Fort Dardanos. E15 was soon hit and disabled; Brodie was killed in the conning tower by shrapnel and six of the crew were killed by chlorine gas released when the submarine's batteries were exposed to seawater after a second shell strike. Forced to evacuate the vessel, the remaining crew surrendered, to be incarcerated in a prisoner of war camp near Istanbul where six later died.

Sold with copied record of service.