Orders, Decorations and Medals

Six: Hospital Attendant F. W. Coward, Merchant Navy, late Royal Australian Navy, a Great War veteran who was taken P.O.W. when the liner Orama was sunk by the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper off Norway in June 1940 - and who died in captivity in April 1944

British War Medal 1914-20 (1221 S.B.A., R.A.N.); Mercantile Marine War Medal 1914-18 (Frederick W. Coward); Victory Medal 1914-19 (1221 S.B.A., R.A.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939-45, the last three with their original card box of issue addressed to his next of kin, and related Ministry of Transport condolence slip in the name of ‘Frederick W. Coward’, good very fine and better (6) £350-400

Frederick William Coward, who was born in London in October 1894, originally joined the Royal Australian Navy as Boy Servant in September 1911. In October 1913, he was transferred to the R.A.N’s London depot, where he served as a Sick Berth Attendant until joining H.M.A.S. Australia in July 1916. Back ashore at the London depot by January 1917, he was discharged as medically unfit later that year but, as verified by Board of Trade records, he subsequently served in the Mercantile Marine.

The outbreak of hostilities found him as a Hospital Attendant aboard the liner Orama, which ship was requisitioned by the Admiralty as an auxiliary transport for the Norwegian campaign in 1940, and, on 8 June, in a position some 300 miles west of Narvik, she was sunk by gunfire and torpedoes from the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper - 19 of her crew were killed, and around 280 picked up and taken P.O.W., Coward among the latter.

An eye-witness account of the Orama’s loss was written-up in the diary of one of her Stewards, William Dart (see Dix Noonan Webb, 17 September 2004, Lot 296):

‘8 June 1940: A seaplane was sighted and reported to the bridge as an enemy one. But the lookout man was told he was wrong. I was working in the office at the time and later, about 10 a.m., I was on the main deck changing the Chief Steward’s linen and talking to the linen-keepers, when we heard three terrific crashes. We wondered what had happened and I dashed up to the office, grabbed my lifebelt and ran to ‘E’ deck square, where I was told that we were being attacked by a battleship (“von Hipper”) and four light destroyers. Crashes were coming now continuously and as I got on ‘D’ deck square the lights went out. There was no panic. I made my way up to the lounge and was proceeding to the dance square when a crash took place and I found a shell had just taken a piece of the smoking-room away. I made then for boat No. 9 but it was holed so I went to No. 11. There, with A.B. Morris, we moved the deck sail and got into the boat, and at that moment we shot down to the water and by the time we left the ship we were pretty well full-up. The ship by this time was still being continually shelled and had taken a list to port. The Bosun was throwing raft and lifebuoys over the side. He was one of the coolest men on board.

Paddy Flynn was our Coxswain. We picked up the Third Officer, Boatswain’s Mate, Second Storekeeper, two deck boys and one engineer (Moore, N.). As we were rowing away from the ship, we heard a terrific explosion and saw bits of boat and everything going up. It was a torpedo which had hit one of the lifeboats - containing ten men (who were killed at once) - and the after end of the ship.

We rowed to the “Hipper” and were pulled on board and taken down below, where the sailors treated us well, giving blankets to the wet ones and also towels. We were taken along to the officers’ quarters and given goulash, jam, bread, butter, sausage and cigarettes ... after a while the “von Hipper” moved off and soon we were speeding towards Trondheim at about 40 knots, and later the captain came in and told us everything would be alright as long as we didn’t run into any of the Birtish Navy and, if we did, we would be given a fighting chance to survive. We were told that H.M.S. “Glorious” had been sunk.’

Subsequently incarcerated at Marlag und Milag Nord, Frederick Coward died there on 30 April 1944, first news of his demise being reported by a telegram from the International Red Cross. He is buried in Becklingen War Cemetery.