Eight: Able Seaman W. S. Elsdon, Royal Navy

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Cape Colony, South Africa 1901 (W. S. Elsdon, Ord., H.M.S. Naid.) clasps neatly added to reflect entitlement; Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Somaliland 1902-04 (W.S. Elsdon, A.B., H.M.S. Naiad); Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Persian Gulf 1909-1914 (205093 W. S. Elsdon, A.B. H.M.S. Fox); 1914-15 Star (205093, W. S. Elsdon, A.B., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (205093 W. S. Elsdon. A.B. R.N.); Defence Medal; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (205093. W. S. Elsdon, A.B. H.M.S. Victory) mounted for wear, last with officially corrected number, the first two with contact marks and edge bruising, about very fine, the remainder good very fine (8) £800-£1,000

Walter Samuel Elsdon was born in Lambeth in 1883 and enlisted as a Boy 2nd Class in 1899 and served in the usual range of warships and shore stations until discharged ‘time expired’ in 1913. During this time he served in South Africa with a naval party of some 117 men landed from H.M.S. Naiad at Saldhana Bay, Western Cape, for service against Boer commandos said to be operating in the Vredenburg area. He was then deployed in operations off Somaliland in the same ship, 1902-04, and then aboard H.M.S. Fox for the anti-gun-running operations in the Persian Gulf, serving on the station 1910-12. Recalled for service in the Great War, ex R.F.R., Elsdon spent most of that period aboard the 2nd Class Cruiser H.M.S. Venus, which service included Atlantic Patrols off Western Ireland, extensive service in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, Dutch East Indies, Colombo, Singapore and Hong Kong. He is one of a group noted in the ship’s logs as leaving the ship in April 1918 at Colombo for return to the U.K. He served as a qualified Diver from at least 1905 to 1916, and was discharged from H.M.S. Victory in June 1921.

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