Orders, Decorations and Medals

Three: Stoker Petty Officer W. J. Cox, Royal Navy, killed in action with German destroyers, 12 December 1917

1914-15 Star (285190 S.P.O., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (285190 S.P.O., R.N.) extremely fine (3) £120-160

Stoker Petty Officer Walter John Cox, R.N., was killed in action on 12 December 1917, aged 22 years, whilst serving aboard the destroyer Partridge. The son of Esther Cox of Canterbury and the late Charles Cox, and the husband of Edith Mary Cox of 56 Ivy Lane, Canterbury. His name is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

The Partridge was part of a unit based at Lewick on the Shetland Islands used for escorting convoys to and from Scandinavia. On 11 December 1917 the ship left port in company with the destroyer Pellew and the armed trawlers Livingstone, Commander, Lord Alverstone and Tokie escorting a convoy of six ships. At 11.45 a.m. on 12 December the convoy was S.W. of Bjorne Fiord when four enemy detsroyers were sighted to the north. After signalling the merchant ships to scatter, the Pellew and Partridge closed with the enemy ships. In the action that followed, the Partridge was hit by shells and torpedoes and sunk, going down with five officers and 92 ratings. The sole survivor of the convoy was the Pellew which, though damaged, managed to escape in the heavy weather.

Sold with an original photograph of Petty Officer Cox and another of his wife?; also with original Birth and Marriage Certificates; damaged medal card boxes of issue with registered envelope and forwarding slip.