Auction Catalogue

25 September 2008

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

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Lot

№ 1546

.

25 September 2008

Hammer Price:
£5,200

A fine ‘long service’ group of eight medals awarded to Leading Seaman R. F. Grimley, Royal Australian Navy, who served as an Ordinary Seaman aboard H.M.A.S. Sydney in the action against S.M.S. Emden, 9 November 1914

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914-15 Star (O.N.2263 Ord. Sea.); British War and Victory Medals (A.B., R.A.N.); War and Australia Service Medals (2263 R. F. Grimley); Royal Australian Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 2nd issue, fixed suspension, with Second Award bar (2263 Leading Seaman, R.A.N.); H.M.A.S. Sydney - S.M.S. Emden Medal, 9 November 1914, silver Mexican Dollar dated 1895 , mounted by W. Kerr, Sydney, unnamed; Western Australia, Sydney - Emden Commemorative Medal, reverse inscribed (part engraved) ‘Presented by the People of Western Australia to R. F. Grimley, Boy 1 Class’, mounted for display, edge bruising, first three worn; others very fine (8) £1800-2200

Reginald Francis Grimley was born in Rockhampton, Queensland on 24 August 1897. He entered the Royal Australian Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on Tingira on 24 October 1912. On 15 October 1913 he was posted to the cruiser Sydney with the rank of Boy 1st Class and was advanced to Ordinary Seaman 2nd Class on 24 August 1914. In that capacity he was serving on the Sydney when she engaged and overcame the German light cruiser Emden on 9 November 1914. Remaining on the Sydney, he was advanced to Ordinary Seaman in August 1915 and Able Seaman in September 1916, finally leaving the vessel in September 1917. He spent the last year of the war as an A.B. on the Encounter, January 1918-June 1919. Grimley was advanced to Acting Leading Seaman when on the Adelaide in July 1927 and was confirmed at that rating in July 1928 when on the Anzac. In December 1930 he was awarded the L.S. & G.C. Medal when on the Albatross. He transferred to the Auxiliary Services as a Boatman in August 1939 and was awarded the Second Award bar to his L.S. & G.C. Medal in 1946. Latterly employed with the recruiting service, he was pensioned in 1952 and died on 23 June 1955.

The famous action took place on 9 November 1914 when the 2nd Class Cruiser H.M.A.S.
Sydney encountered the German Light Cruiser S.M.S. Emden off the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. In a short but spectacular career in the Indian Ocean the Emden (Captain Karl von Müller) had bombarded Madras and captured or sunk some 23 allied vessels including a Russian cruiser and a French destroyer. In action with the Sydney, the slower and outgunned Emden was eventually beached in a wrecked condition on North Keeling Island.

Sold with copied service records; confirmation of service on the
Sydney on 9 November 1914 (rank shown as Boy 1st Class); two copied photographs of the recipient; other associated photographs; accounts of the Sydney-Emden action and sundry associated pictures.