Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Great War D.S.M. group of four awarded to Chief Petty Officer 1st Class E. W. Heasman, Royal Navy, for services in submarine B6 in operations off Gallipoli, 1915

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (178613 PO.1, R.N.), later style smaller impressed naming; 1914-15 Star (178613 P.O.1, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (178613 P.O.1, R.N.), mounted as worn, very fine (4) £700-900

D.S.M. London Gazette 16 August 1915. ‘For services in Submarine B6’.

Edwin Walter Heasman was born in Tenterton, Kent on 7 June 1887. A Groom by occupation, he entered into the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in June 1905. Promoted to Boy 1st Class in July 1905, Ordinary Seaman, October 1905, Able Seaman, August 1907 and Leading Seaman, June 1912. He gained the rank of Petty Officer in June 1913 when serving on the submarine depot ship Bonaventure. Early on in the war he served on Cormorant, September 1913-February 1915, before being posted to the destroyer depot ship Blenheim in the Mediterranean, February-March 1915 and thence the submarine depot ship Adamant in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1 April- 16 August 1915. It was during this time whilst serving on the submarine B6 that he was recommended for the D.S.M. in connection with operations in Gallipoli, being slightly wounded in action on 16 August 1915. Further service on B.11 followed in early 1916 when based on Dolphin. Later in the war, the old ‘B’ Class submarines were converted into surface patrol boats. Heasman was advanced to Chief Petty Officer in September 1920 and was pensioned ashore on 6 June 1927. Sold with copied service papers.