Orders, Decorations and Medals

Seven: Chief Stoker A. A. Callen, Royal Navy
Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (Sto., H.M.S. Sybille); Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Somaliland 1908-10 (284668 Sto. P.O., H.M.S. Proserpine); Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Persian Gulf 1909-1914 (284668 Sto. P.O., H.M.S. Proserpine); 1914-15 Star (284668 Ch. Sto., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (284668 Ch. Sto., R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (284668 Stoker P.O., H.M.S. Victory), edge nicks and contact marks, otherwise generally very fine and a scarce combination of awards (7) £600-700

Arthur Albert Callen was born in Winchester, Hampshire in November 1874 and entered the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in February 1897. Advanced to Stoker in the following year, he was present off South Africa in H.M.S. Sybille when she ran aground in bad weather in Lambert’s Bay on 16 January 1901, thereby becoming the only Royal Navy ship to be lost during the Boer War. Having struck a reef in poor weather, the Sybille was abandoned by her crew, the whole being taken off in five boats over a period of ten hours - at the subsequent Court Martial, four officers were severely reprimanded for her loss as a result of assorted navigational errors. Having then been advanced to Stoker Petty Officer in July 1906, Callen witnessed further active service during his time aboard the Proserpine, September 1908 to July 1910, when he was present in operations off Somaliland and in the Persian Gulf. Awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in February 1912, he was serving as a Chief Stoker in the battleship Monarch by the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, but he came ashore in January 1915 and was invalided from Victory I in the following month; sold with copy medal roll verification.