Orders, Decorations and Medals

A fine post-war M.B.E., Second World War Mediterranean operations D.S.M. group of nine awarded to Lieutenant-Commander D. V. A. Pearce, Royal Navy, who saw extensive action in the destroyers Maori and Jervis 1939-43, including the destruction of the Bismarck in May 1941, and who finally ‘came ashore’ in 1987, when he received a C.-in-C’s Commendation for his 50 years in the Senior Service

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Military) Member’s 2nd type breast badge, in its Royal Mint case of issue; Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (JX. 154938 D. V. A. Pearce, A./T./P.O.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45; Malta, 50th Anniversary Medal 1942-92; Royal Humane Society’s Medal, bronze (Mr. D. V. A. Pearce, Royal Navy, 3rd Oct. 1947), complete with riband buckle, together with his Armed Forces Veteran’s lapel badge, in its case of issue, contact marks and polished, particularly the second, but otherwise generally very fine (10) £2000-2500

M.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1972.

D.S.M. London Gazette 24 August 1943:

‘Four courage, resolution and skill in a successful attack on an enemy convoy while serving in H.M.S. Jervis.’

Douglas Victor Alan Pearce was born in Newton Abbot, Devon in February 1922 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in September 1937. A rating aboard the destroyer H.M.S. Maori on the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939, he remained similarly employed until that ship’s loss as a result of an enemy raid on Valetta, Malta in February 1942, gaining rapid advancement to Acting Petty Officer in the interim.

The Maori, commanded by Commander Noel Brewer, R.N., at the onset of hostilities, quickly saw action off Norway, not least during the evacuation of Nasmos in April 1940, when two near misses from enemy aircraft caused extensive damage and wounded 20 of her crew, five of them mortally. Commander H. T. “Beaky” Armstrong, D.S.C., R.N. (afterwards a D.S.O.* and D.S.C.*), then having been appointed C.O., Maori went on to lend valuable service with Cossack, Sikh and Zulu during the Bismarck action in May 1941 - after creeping up at 25 knots on the enemy’s port quarter, under fire, and delivering a torpedo attack, she and her destroyer consorts clung to their quarry to await the arrival of Tovey’s big guns. In his own account of the torpedo attack action, Pearce describes the moment Bismarck’s shells started to find their range:

‘Armour piercing shells, each weighing a ton, splashed on all sides sending up large plumes of water. One passed under the wireless aerials between the funnels, and, as Maori gathered speed Bismarck changed to shrapnel, shells exploding in the air, fragments passing through the superstructure ... ’

Maori was subsequently present at the Bismarck’s demise, and picked up 24 survivors.

At the end of the year, with Commander Rafe Courage, D.S.O., D.S.C.* now serving as C.O., Maori was ordered to the Mediterranean to reinforce the 14th Destroyer Flotilla, and was in support of Force ‘K’ at the time of the sinking of the Italian cruisers Alberico da Barbiano and Alberto di Guiossano off Cape Bon that December - Courage receiving a Bar to his D.S.O. on the same occasion. Shortly thereafter Maori participated in the 1st battle of Sirte, before removing to the 22nd Destroyer Flotilla at Malta, where served as a convoy escort until her demise, as stated, in an air raid on Grand Harbour in February 1942.

In April, Pearce joined another famous destroyer, H.M.S. Jervis, commanded by Captain John Crawford, D.S.O., R.N., and first saw action in her during convoy “M.G. 2” in the following month, when, famously, Lively, Kipling and Jackal were lost to sustained enemy air attacks - Maori picked up survivors from all three ships, many of them seriously wounded.

But it was for his part in spectacular night action against an enemy convoy off Cape Spartivento on 1-2 June 1943 that Pearce won his D.S.M., when, in company with the Greek destroyer Vasilissa Olga, and with Allied aircraft illuminating the enemy targets, Maori sank the Italian torpedo boat Castore at point-blank range, in addition to inflicting severe damage on two merchantmen.

Pearce, who afterwards participated in the landings in Sicily, Salerno and Anzio, as well as operations in the Aegean, returned to the U.K. in November 1943. Subsequently employed at Drake for the remainder of the War, he was invested with his D.S.M. at Buckingham Palace on D-Day, 6 June 1944, and was appointed a Gunner, R.N. in November 1945.

Post-war, while borne on the books of H.M.S. Haydon, he served on mine clearance duties, and won his Royal Humane Society’s Medal for saving a diver in Haifa in October 1947, the latter being a member of Lieutenant-Commander “Buster” Crabb’s team. In April 1957, he qualified as a Gunnery Officer, and it was in that capacity that he was advanced to Lieutenant-Commander in October 1966.

And it was for his subsequent work as Gunnery Officer in command of all training at the shore establishment Cambridge 1968-72 that he was awarded his M.B.E., which insignia he received at Buckingham Palace on 22 February of the latter year. Here, then, the end of his official career in the Royal Navy, but he was invited to stay on at Cambridge as a ‘Retired Officer in uniform’, serving as a Seaman Missile Divisional Officer (S.M.D.O.), an invitation which he accepted and a role in which he remained employed until his final retirement in 1987, after 50 years in the Senior Service - he was duly awarded a C.-in-C’s Commendation.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s Admiralty letter of notification for his D.S.M., dated 25 August 1943, and related Buckingham Palace investiture admittance ticket, dated 6 June 1944; Royal Humane Society’s certificate of award for his Bronze Medal, dated 9 March 1948, and related Naval message regarding a presentation ceremony, dated 14 June 1948; commission warrant for the rank of Gunner, R.N., dated 14 October 1948; Certificate of Hurts & Wounds, dated 5 September 1962, for a knee injury received in H.M.S. Tartar; parchment Certificate of Service, Gunnery History Sheets and a run of ship’s “flimsies” (24), covering the period 1946-72; C.-in-C’s Commendation, dated February 1987, with extensive citation; a run of career photographs (approximately 20); and a copy of the recipient’s privately printed memoirs; together with a plated salver, by Hutschenreuter, 21.5cm. by 26.5cm., purportedly given to Pearce by a Bismarck survivor (as a founding member of the Maori Association after the War, Pearce attended a number of reunions held by the enemy ship’s survivors), and the recipient’s Naval officer’s sword, complete with scabbard and carrying case.