Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Second World War D.S.M. group of four awarded to Stoker R. E. W. Currell, Royal Navy, killed in action when H.M. Submarine Parthian was lost with all hands in the Mediterranean in August 1943

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (KX.107159 R. E. W. Currell, Sto.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; War Medal, extremely fine (4) £400-500

D.S.M. London Gazette 7 September 1943: ‘For bravery and skill in successful patrols in H.M. Submarine Parthian.’

Ronald Ernest William Currell, from Edgware, Middlesex, won his D.S.M. for services during patrols in the Eastern Mediterranean between July 1942 and June 1943. He was among those lost when the Parthian is believed to have hit a mine during her final patrol between Malta and Beirut on the 10th of August 1943. In a patrol off the Aegean between March and April 1943, Parthian boarded a number of caiques, some of which were afterwards destroyed by gunfire, and bombarded a resin factory in the Gulf of Kassandra. During her third patrol, April-May 1943, a 50-ton caique was sunk by gunfire off the island of Kos.

Later, however, Parthian paid dearly for a brave but inconclusive gunfight with an escort vessel in the Dorso Channel, when opposing ships dropped some 70 depth charges. Lucky to escape unscathed, she went on to execute a successful bombardment of the Salonica railway line at Heraklion, her guns destroying or damaging a number of railway trucks, the station buildings, and a signal box, in addition to two caiques. At length, after one rating had been mortally wounded, she was compelled to dive. In his official report on the action Lieutenant St John, commanding, noted that ‘everyone on the bridge got peppered with splinters... and a whole bullet fell out of the First Lieutenant’s trousers at breakfast next morning.’ For his own part, St John stated that Currell had ‘at all times performed his duty at sea with great efficiency... His reliable character and cheerfulness rendered valuable assistance in evading a severe depth charge attack.’ Tragically, in August 1943, under a new commanding officer, Lieutenant Pardoe, R.N.R., Parthian was lost with all hands. Ronald Currell was just 23 years old at the time of his death.