Orders, Decorations and Medals

Three: Stoker 1st Class H. McAlenan, Royal Navy

1914-15 Star (K. 21956 Sto. 1, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (K. 21956 Sto. 1, R.N.)), extremely fine (3) £60-80

Hugh McAlenan was born in Liverpool in March 1894 and entered the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in February 1914. He subsequently witnessed active service in the Dardanelles in 1915, firstly in the battleship H.M.S. Queen, including operations in support of the A.N.Z.A.C. landings at Gaba Tepe, and latterly, from July until the evacuation of the Peninsula, in the cruiser Dublin. Then from March 1916 until September 1918, when he was invalided ashore, he served in the destroyer Mermaid, a period that witnessed at least one successful encounter with a U-Boat, when, on 19 January 1918, she spotted a periscope off Cap Gris Nez: the enemy submarine U-95 immediately dived - into a minefield - an error of judgement confirmed by an almighty explosion about ten minutes later.