Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Stoker Petty Officer G. L. White, Royal Navy, killed when H.M.S. Bittern was in collision with S.S. Kenilworth, 4 April 1918

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (Sto., H.M.S. Terpsichore) impressed naming; 1914-15 Star (285168 S.P.O., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (285168 S.P.O., R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (285168 Sto. P.O., H.M.S. Vivid); Memorial Plaque (George Lambert White) extremely fine (6) £300-400

George Lambert White was born in Harberton, Devon on 9 January 1878. A Labourer by occupation, he enlisted into the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class on 3 May 1897, being advanced to Stoker in March 1898 when on Nile. He served on Terpsichore, February 1901-April 1904, during which time he served off the coast of South Africa. White was promoted to Stoker 1st Class in July 1906 when on Cambrian, to Leading Stoker in October 1912 when on Magnificent and attained the rank of Stoker Petty Officer in November 1915 when on Blenheim. He was based on Vivid II and serving on the destroyer Bittern from July 1916.

He was on board the vessel when in April 1917 the Bittern, with others, rendered assistance to the S.S. Clan Sutherland which had been torpedoed by the UC-66 12 miles E.S.E. of Start Point. A party from the Bittern boarded the ship in an attempt to save the vessel. Eventually the Clan Sutherland was beached at Dartmouth where it was found that the vessel had been looted. The men from the Bittern were blamed and as punishment their salvage reward was forfeited whether they had boarded the stricken ship or not.

Stoker Petty Officer White was killed whilst on duty when the Bittern was sunk in a collision with the S.S. Kenilworth off Portland Bill in thick fog on 4 April 1918. The Court of Inquiry found that the captain of the Kenilworth had been negligent in that he had failed to follow the prescribed route, showing no lights and sounding no fog horn.

With original named scroll mounted on card; slip to accompany the Memorial Plaque, and extensive copied research including photographs of the Bittern and one of the Harberton War Memorial bearing White’s name.