Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Great War D.S.M. awarded to Acting Chief Stoker J. McIntosh, Mercantile Marine Reserve
Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (J. McIntosh, Act. Ch. Sto., M.M.R., H.M.S. Kildonan Castle, 1917), good very fine
£500-600

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Small Collection of Medals to the Merchant Navy.

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D.S.M. London Gazette 6 April 1918: ‘For services in vessels of the R.N. employed on patrol and escort duty during the period 1 January to 31 December 1917.’

James McIntosh was decorated for his services in the armed merchant cruiser H.M.S. Kildonan Castle, a ship of the 10th Cruiser Squadron, in 1917. During the period January-March of that year alone, the Squadron intercepted 3478 ships, 877 of them being sent in with armed guards - ‘cruising without lights, intercepting ships night and day in all weathers, boarding them, placing armed guards on board, and conducting them in safety to their various destinations’, this then dangerous work further complicated by the presence of enemy submarines: thus a double torpedo strike against the Kildonan Castle back in October 1916, both fortunately missing their target even though fired from close range.

Kildonan Castle also conveyed elements of the British Military Mission to Murmansk in early 1918; sold with research.