Orders, Decorations and Medals

The important Great War Dogger Bank D.S.O. and 1914-15 Star awarded to Lieutenant (afterwards Captain) F. T. Peters, Royal Navy, who added a V.C. and a D.S.C. and Bar to his accolades prior to being killed in a flying accident in November 1942, shortly after his part in the raid on the Vichy French port of Oran, ‘an enterprise of desperate hazard’: blinded in one eye, ‘he alone of 17 officers and men on the bridge survived’

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamels, in its Garrard & Co. case of issue; 1914-15 Star (Lieut. F. T. Peters, D.S.O., R.N.), good very fine or better (2) £4000-5000

V.C. London Gazette 18 May 1943:

‘For valour in taking H.M.S. Walney, in an enterprise of desperate hazard, into the harbour of Oran on 8 November 1942. Captain Peters led his force through the boom towards the jetty in the face of point-blank fire from the shore batteries, a destroyer and a cruiser. Blinded in one eye, he alone of the seventeen officers and men on the bridge survived. The Walney reached the jetty disabled and ablaze, and went down with her colours flying.’

D.S.O. London Gazette 3 March 1915. The original recommendation states:

‘Lieutenant Peters went down into No. 1 boiler room almost immediately after the explosion caused by the bursting of an 8.2-inch projectile, and whilst there was still a danger of another explosion on account of escaping oil, and assisted in recovering two stoker ratings.’

D.S.C. London Gazette 8 March 1918. The original recommendation states:

‘He showed exceptional initiative, ability and zeal in submarine hunting operations, and a complete disregard of danger, exceptional coolness and ingenuity in his attacks on submarines.’

Bar to D.S.C. London Gazette 11 July 1940:

‘For good services in the Royal Navy since the outbreak of war.’

American D.S.C. London Gazette 19 January 1943. The original recommendation states:

‘For extraordinary heroism in action. While in command of the ship carrying landing forces of the United States Army into the harbour of Oran, Morocco, in the early morning of 8 November 1942, Captain Peters distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism against an armed enemy during the attack on that port. He remained on the bridge in command of his ship in spite of the fact the protective armour thereon had been blown in by enemy shell fire and was thereby exposed personally to the withering cross fire from the shore defences. He accomplished the berthing of his ship, then went to the forward deck and, assisted by one officer, secured the forward mooring lines. He then with utter disregard of his own personal safety went to the quarter-deck and assisted in securing the aft mooring lines so that the troops on board could disembark. At that time the engine room was in flames and very shortly thereafter the ship turned on its side and sank.’

Frederick Thornton Peters was born in Charlottetown, British Columbia in September 1889, the son of Frederick Peters, Prime Minister and Attorney General of Prince Edward Island. Entering the Royal Navy as a Cadet in January 1905, he won his first award - the Italian Messina Earthquake Medal - for his services as a Midshipman in H.M.S. Duncan, but resigned his commission in 1912 and returned to Canada, because ‘his family’s coffers needed filling’.

Having then worked as a Third Officer on the Canadian Pacific Railways, he was recalled on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, was appointed Lieutenant and was mentioned in despatches and awarded the D.S.O. for his gallantry in H.M.S. Meteor at Dogger Bank on 24 January 1915. His ship, under a galling fire, delivered the torpedo strike that caused the mighty Blucher to strike her flag and, shortly afterwards, turn turtle and sink, but in return for her gallant close range attack, Meteor was thrice hit by the Blucher’s guns, several men being killed and her engine room badly damaged. Appointed to the command of the destroyer Greyhound in November 1915, he went on to serve with distinction in the Dover Patrol, and was awarded the D.S.C. for his subsequent anti-submarine work in the Christopher.

Once again resigning his commission, Peters involved himself with assorted business projects between the wars, ranging from the sale of boots to the Russians to cocoa growing on the Gold Coast, but on the renewal of hostilities in September 1939, he was quickly back in uniform, this time in the rank of Commander. Appointed C.O. of an anti-submarine flotilla, he was awarded a Bar to his D.S.C. in July 1940 while serving as C.O. of H.M.S. Thirlmere. Coming ashore to take up an appointment in the Directorate of Naval Intelligence in the following year, he was appointed Commandant of a school for training special agents at Brickendonbury Hall, near Hertford, where his colleagues included Guy Burgess and Kim Philby - the latter later recalled how Peters took them to dinner at the Hungaria to hear their views and how ‘he had faraway naval eyes and a gentle smile of great charm.’

But Peters grew to despise the politics of such establishments, and longed to return to sea, a fact confirmed by Philby, and, by way of the contacts he had forged in Naval Intelligence, managed to get himself assigned to a secret mission for “Operation Torch” - namely command of a naval and military force charged with attacking the Vichy-held port of Oran (a.k.a. “Operation Reservist”). John Winton takes up the story in The Victoria Cross at Sea:

‘On the night of 8 November 1942, the two 1,000-ton Lease-Lend ex-U.S. Coast Guard cutters Walney (Acting Captain F. T. Peters) and Harland (Lieutenant-Commander G. P. Billot) approached the harbour of Oran, in North Africa. They had on board parties of U.S. Rangers, to seize port installations and prevent the Vichy French from sabotaging them and scuttling ships in the harbour, and specially trained technicians to operate the harbour once it had been taken. Walney had no sooner crashed through the harbour boom than a searchlight picked her out and the harbour defences opened fire at point-blank range. Peters was blinded in one eye but was the only one of seventeen men on Walney’s bridge to survive. He ordered the cutter alongside a French warship, where grapnels were thrown out and the surviving Rangers with tommy guns and revolvers stormed on board. Walney was still raked from end to end by constant and heavy fire at close range. Her boilers blew up, and she turned over and sank, with her ensign still flying. Hartland also reached the jetty, but there were too few men left alive to handle her lines and she drifted out again into the harbour, where she too blew up and sank.

Peters and a handful of men reached shore on a Carley float and were imprisoned by the Vichy garrison. They were released a few days later when the Allies took Oran. Peters was carried through the streets, where the people of Oran hailed him with flowers. On 13 November, when flying home, his aircraft crashed taking off from Gibraltar and he was killed. His posthumous V.C. was gazetted on 18 May 1943.’

N.B.
The recipient’s Victoria Cross, together with the Second Award Bar to his D.S.C. (officially dated ‘1940’), and American D.S.C. (officially numbered ‘8251’), were sold by Spink on 23 September 1993 (Lot No. 410).