Four: Able Seaman W. C. Hills, Royal Navy, later Royal Fleet Reserve

1914-15 Star (J.11393, W. C. Hills, A.B., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (J.11393 W. C. Hills. A.B. R.N.); Royal Fleet Reserve L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 2nd issue (J.11393 (Ch. B.15624) W. C. Hills. A.B. R.F.R.) nearly very fine (4) £100-£140

Wilfred Charles Hills, a shop boy from Gravesend, Kent, was born on 26 May 1895. He attested into the Royal Navy as a Boy on 24 February 1911. Advanced Able Seaman on 27 September 1914, at the start of the Great War he was serving in H.M.S. Hibernia and served at Gallipoli. He saw later service afloat in Q-14 H.M.S. Viola, and afterwards in H.M.S. Warwick, with whom he was wounded during the Second Ostend Raid on 10 May 1918. Discharged to shore on 31 March 1920, he joined the Royal Fleet Reserve the following day.

Sold with copy service papers and the book ‘From Great War to Grytviken, Viola, The life and times of a Hull Steam Trawler’. In 1982, Viola became quarry for the infamous Argentine scrap metal expedition to South Georgia, which initiated the Falklands War.