Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Coulson family medals:

Five: William Thomas Coulson, Mercantile Marine - a Carpenter aboard the S.S. Brussels when she was captured by the Germans in June 1916 - her captain Charles Fryatt was subsequently executed as a franc-tireur
British War and Mercantile Marine War Medals (William T. Coulson); Royal Humane Society, small bronze medal (successful) (William T. Coulson, 12 August, 1870); Belgium, Civic Medal, bronze, on ‘distinguished service’ ribbon; ‘Freedom of Antwerp’ Cross, bronze-gilt and enamel, lacking reverse centre

Pair: William Henry Coulson, Mercantile Marine
British War and Mercantile Marine War Medals (William H. Coulson)

Five: attributed to Petty Officer Eric William “Chicko” Coulson, Royal Navy
1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Defence and War Medals, these unnamed, mounted as worn, good very fine and better except where stated (12) £1200-1500

William Thomas Coulson was born in Harwich in 1849. When employed as a Shipwright, living at 2 George Street, Harwich, he effected the rescue of Robert Middleton who, on 12 August 1870, fell into the water at Harwich Harbour. Coulson jumped in after him, dived, and supported him until a boat arrived.

During the Great War Coulson served as Carpenter aboard the S.S. Brussels under Captain Charles Fryatt. The Brussels was a Great Eastern Railway steamer running between Rotterdam and the East Coast of England. The vessel was of much annoyance to the Germans and they made several determined efforts to sink her.

On 3 March 1915 Captain Fryatt of the Wrexham, successfully evaded an attack on his ship by a German U-Boat. The Wrexham ignored the signal to stop and used her superior speed to escape. For his actions, the ship’s grateful owners presented Fryatt with a gold watch.

On 28 March 1915, Captain Fryatt, then in command of the Brussels, encountered the U-33. Again ignoring signals to stop, Fryatt ordered full-speed and fatefully attempted to ram the submarine which hastily submerged. For this exploit Fryatt was awarded another gold watch, this time from the Admiralty. On 11 and 15 June she was again menaced by German submarines and on each occasion used her speed to escape.

The Brussel’s luck finally ran out on 23 June 1916 when she was captured by German destroyers off the Dutch coast and taken to Zeebrugge in occupied Belgium. Captain Fryatt and the crew of the Brussels, including Coulson, were sent to a prison camp in Germany. There Fryatt might have spent the rest of the war in captivity, however notification of his capture and his past exploits appearing in the British press alerted the Germans, and Admiral Ludwig von Schroder, wishing to make an example of Captain Fryatt and to deter other Merchant Navy captains from attempting to sink German submarines, placed Fryatt on trial as a franc-tireur - a civilian ‘illegally’ fighting against German military forces. On 27 July 1916 Fryatt was tried by a naval court martial, found guilty and executed by firing squad later the same day. A German official statement concluded, ‘One of the many nefarious “franc-tireurs” proceedings of the British Merchant Marine against our war vessels has thus found a belated but merited expiation.’ The action caused outrage in Britain and the civilised world. In 1919 his body was exhumed from its simple grave in Belgium and after a funeral in St. Paul’s Cathedral, attended by the King and Queen of Belgium, members of the British Cabinet, Admiralty, Board of Trade and hundreds of merchant seamen and widows of merchant seamen, his body was laid to rest in Dovercourt near Harwich. A memorial to Captain Fryatt may be found at Liverpool Street Station, London.

With postcards (4) relating to Fryatt and the Brussels, and related copied research including m.i.c. and a photocopied photograph of Coulson as a senior member of Fryatt’s crew.

William Henry Coulson was born in Harwich in 1880. With copied m.i.c.

Eric William Coulson was born in Harwich on 1 July 1917. He was aboard the S.S. Pozarica when she was sunk off Buggi, North Africa. Post-war he lived in Baughurst, Tadley, Hampshire and died c.1980. With two original wartime photographs of the recipient, and copied discharge certificate.