Auction Catalogue

4 & 5 December 2008

Starting at 11:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

Download Images

Lot

№ 1159

.

5 December 2008

Hammer Price:
£580

Pair: Ordinary Seaman H. A. Studley, Royal Navy, who was killed in action at Jutland in the destroyer Turbulent - caught in the searchlights of the enemy battleship Westfalen, she was ‘literally blown to pieces’ at point-blank range

British War and Victory Medals
(J. 50534 Ord., R.N.), together with related Memorial Plaque (Herbert Augustus Studley), the reverse of the last fitted with rivets for mounting purposes, otherwise extremely fine (3) £300-350

Herbert Augustus Studley, a native of Walworth, London, was killed in action at the Battle of Jutland while serving in the destroyer H.M.S. Turbulent:

‘The Turbulent, last of Goldsmith’s line, found her way barred by the two leading battleships, and in an effort to get round their bows and follow the Petard, Lieutenant-Commander Stuart, turned parallel and increased to full speed. But she had been detected by the Westfalen and, at point-blank range, her doom was certain. With a small turn to starboard the battleship was able to bring the whole of her port secondary battery to bear and literally blew the little ship to pieces’ (Jutland, by Captain Donald McIntyre, refers).

Just 13 of Turbulent’s crew were picked up and taken P.O.W., the remainder - five officers and 85 ratings - being lost.

Herbert Studley was 19 years of age and is commemorated on the Chatham Memorial.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including Admiralty notification of the recipient’s loss, dated 6 June 1916; another communication reporting that no news had been received from the Prussian Ministry of War reporting him as a P.O.W., dated 28 June 1916; Certificate of the Inspector of Seamen’s Wills, dated 20 November 1916; Admiralty forwarding letter for his 1914-18 campaign awards, including the 1914-15 Star, dated 4 February 1923, but another official communication requesting the return of the Star, ‘since your son did not enter the Royal Navy until February 1916 - his services, therefore, did not qualify for the award of this decoration’, this dated 1 May 1923; assorted Great War period photographs and postcards, one from the recipient to his mother, in which he states he is about to join his first ship; and a
Pembroke silk cap tally.