Orders, Decorations and Medals

A fine Second World War B.E.M. group of four awarded to Able Seaman (Gunner) C. J. Jacques, Merchant Navy, who manned an unprotected Lewis gun under a hail of bullets when his ship was attacked by three enemy aircraft off Scarborough in February 1940 - the ship’s Master was killed and three crew members wounded

British Empire Medal, (Civil) G.VI.R., 1st issue (Charles J. Jacques); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939-45, good very fine and better (4) £350-400

B.E.M. London Gazette 24 May 1940:
‘S.S. Yewdale was armed with one Lewis gun. She was attacked by three enemy aircraft, one on each side and one astern. Her gunner [Jacques] told the reserve gunner to take cover and ran through a hail of bullets to the Lewis gun, which was in an exposed position on the after boat deck, and opened fire. Tracer bullets were seen to enter one of the aircraft near the cockpit. He engaged the enemy so long as his gun would fire, and then took cover in the engine-room. The aircraft attacked with bombs and machine-gun fire aiming at the wheelhouse and the gun, which were peppered with bullet marks. In manning his unprotected gun under heavy fire and continuing in effective action as long as he could, the gunner showed great coolness and disregard of his own safety. The ship was saved and all in her except the Master.’

Charles John Jacques’ ship, the Yewdale, was a coaster owned by John Stewart & Co., and manned by 13 men, four of whom were wounded in this action off Scarborough on 2 February 1940 - the Master fatally. As a result of the latter’s demise, the official report of the action was submitted by Chief Officer W. A. Miller, who stated that the enemy aircraft attacked at a height of about 100 feet, making several passes and dropping around 30 bombs, ‘none of which hit the ship, but some of which fell pretty close, as the ship was several times lifted out of the water by the explosions’. However, the enemy’s machine-gun fire was certainly on target, the ship being ‘riddled with bullet holes’, evidence indeed of Jacques’ gallantry in manning the unprotected Lewis gun in an exposed position.

Interestingly, the Yewdale sustained further damage when shelled by an enemy battery off France in May 1940, but her Lewis gunner was back in action that November, hits being claimed on an enemy aircraft in the Barrow Channel on the 21st - ‘our fire caused the enemy to swerve, his port wing rose and he seemed to be going over, but straightened up; there was black smoke pouring from his tail’: most probably another example of Able Seaman (Gunner) Jacques’ marksmanship.