Orders, Decorations and Medals

A fine Great War Zeebrugge raid D.S.M. group of four awarded to Able Seaman A. Carnochan, Royal Navy, who was wounded while serving in ‘D’ Company of the Seaman Storming Party and subsequently participated in the raid’s V.C. ballot

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (J. 32306 A. Carnochan, A.B., Nl. Bde., Zeebrugge-Ostend 22-3 Apl. 1918); 1914-15 Star (J. 32306 A. Carnochan, Boy 1, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (J. 32306 A Carmochan, A.B., R.N.), note slight difference in surname spelling, contact wear and some surface corrosion to silver medals, otherwise nearly very fine or better (4) £2000-2500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The collection of Medals formed by the Late Clive Nowell.

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D.S.M. London Gazette 23 July 1918.

For services during the operations against Zeebrugge and Ostend on the night of 22-23 April 1918.

Andrew Carnochan was born in Maxwelltown in May 1899 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in July 1914. Joining the battleship H.M.S. Marlborough in February 1915, he was present at Jutland in the following year, on which occasion she served as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Burney, commanding the First Battle Squadron, and was the only ship of the Grand Fleet to be hit by torpedo, a remarkable point that was not lost on Admiral Jellicoe in his Jutland despatch.

One of the features of the action was the large number of torpedoes that crossed our line without taking effect on any ship except Marlborough. Sir Cecil Burney estimates that at least twenty-one torpedoes were seen to cross the line of his squadron. All were avoided by skilful handling, except that single one, and it is notable that the Marlborough herself evaded seven. Similarly the Fifth Battle Squadron, in rear of the First Battle Squadron, avoided a considerable number and the other squadrons had similar experiences.

Marlborough made it back to port for repairs, Carnochan remaining in her until removing to the battleship Hindustan as an Able Seaman in March 1918. Shortly afterwards, however, he volunteered for the Zeebrugge raid, on which occasion he served as a member of ‘D’ Company of the Seaman Storming Party, embarked in the ex-Liverpool ferry-boat Iris II.

Notwithstanding the ferocity of the enemy’s fire, Iris II was brought alongside the Mole, but it was found that the scaling ladders were either too short or could not be made fast. It was at this juncture that Lieutenant-Commander G. N. Bradford climbed up the derrick which carried a large parapet anchor and managed to place it in position - he was, however, immediately riddled with bullets and fell to his death into the sea between the Mole and the ship, an act of courage which won for him a posthumous Victoria Cross. Still under heavy machine-gun fire, and having failed to secure herself to the Mole, Iris II dropped back with some difficulty onto the starboard quarter of the Vindictive and tried to land her seamen across her decks - a number of men in this fashion managed to reach the Mole but were met with a withering fire, many dying the moment their heads came above the parapet.

Shortly afterwards, the order to retire was received, but Iris II had to steer a course that ran right across the front of the Mole batteries. Here then the moment when her decks became buried under heaps of casualties, the enemy gunners raking her from bow to stern with machine-gun fire and 5.9-inch and 11-inch shells from the Goeben battery - one of the latter rounds smashed into the bridge, and the other burst on the main deck, killing around 100 men. Yet amidst the carnage and wreckage on the bridge - where Commander Valentine Gibbs, R.N., her captain, and Major Eagles, R.M., lay mortally wounded, and the Navigating Officer seriously wounded - the Quarter-Master, Petty Officer Smith maintained his position, steering the ship to safety with one hand while lighting the compass with a torch held in the other. Finally, M.L. 558 arrived on the scene and laid a smoke screen, thereby allowing the ferry to make her escape. And in the 13 hours it took her to get back to Dover, Captain Frank Pocock of the R.A.M.C., the only medical officer aboard, had his work cut out for him for, in addition to the hundred or so who already lay dead on her main deck, another 200 or so lay wounded or dying - thus the famous signal sent by Lieutenant Oscar Henderson, the ship’s senior surviving officer: ‘For God’s sake, send some doctors, I have a shipload of dead and dying.

Carnochan, who is verified by his service record as having been wounded and participated in the V.C. ballot, was awarded the D.S.M. Having then served in Pembroke, he returned to sea in his old ship the Marlborough in August 1918, in which capacity he was still employed at the time of his death from influenza in March 1919.