Orders, Decorations and Medals

The extremely rare Great War D.S.M. group of four awarded to Petty Officer Mechanic D. McL. Graham, Royal Naval Air Service, a member of that remarkable team of “Jack Tars” who transported two gunboats through 100 miles of African jungle to successfully challenge German superiority on Lake Taganyika in 1915-16 - and inspire C. S. Forester’s “The African Queen”: to be sold with his important photographic archive of the expedition

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (F. 4625 D. Mc L. Graham, P.O. Mech., R.N.A.S., Taganyika 1915-6); 1914-15 Star (F. 4625 D. M. Graham, P.O.M., R.N.A.S.); British War and Victory Medals (F. 4625 D. M. Graham, P.O.M., R.N.A.S.), contact marks and polished, nearly very fine or better (4) £12000-15000

D.S.M. London Gazette 1 January 1917, as per Commander G. Spicer-Simpson’s recommendation for ‘general excellent work’ written in October 1916. One of only two awards to the R.N.A.S. for this unique Naval expedition.

In the summer of 1915, the key to success in Central Africa lay in the overwhelming German supremacy on Lake Tanganyika. Just how this was challenged by a force of two gunboats - the Mimi and Toutou - under the direction of Commander G. Spicer-Simson, R.N., an eccentric officer with a talent for public relations, is one of the most extraordinary stories of the whole War - indeed no single achievement during that conflict was distinguished by more bizarre features than the successfully executed undertaking of 28 daring men who transported a ‘ready-made’ Navy overland through the wilds of Africa to destroy this enemy flotilla in control of Lake Tanganyika.

And among their number was Donald McLean Graham, a Glaswegian and pre-hostilities motor engineer who had entered the Royal Naval Air Service as a Petty Officer Mechanic in May 1915. Placed on the books of President II, he was among those recruited by Spicer-Simpson’s for his forthcoming Taganyike expedition, and was embarked for Cape Town in the Llanstephen Castle in June.

To cover the three thousand miles or so that lay between Cape Town and the Lake, the boats had to be hauled by steam traction engines and ox trains over more than 100 miles of extremely wild and difficult country, where there were no roads or communications of any kind. The whole journey, by barely navigable rivers and narrow-guage railways, through country where sleep-sickness and other horrible diseases were rife, is one of the strangest passages in the history of the Royal Navy. By 23 December 1915, however, the Mimi and Toutou had been successfully launched on the Lake, and three days later they went into action.

It was on Boxing Day, which also happened to be a Sunday, and during the usual church service Spicer-Simson received a message of the impending arrival of the German gunboat Kingani. Coolly placing the note in his pocket, he returned his attention to the ongoing service, even though his officers - who were facing the Lake - could by now see the approaching enemy vessel. Much to the latter’s relief the service finally came to an end, and, having held up a hand to indicate that the men were not to be dismissed, Spicer-Simson took a long look at the approaching gunboat. Then he said, in a cool, clear voice, “You may dismiss the divisions - and man the launches for immediate action!”

The ensuing action resulted in the capture of the Kingani, a vessel of 30-40 tons, armed with one gun. A 12-pounder was mounted duly added to her armament and as the newly commissioned H.M.S. Fifi, she proved to be a valuable addition to the British Flotilla. This left the enemy with two ships, the Graf von Gotzen, a vessel of 400-500 tons carrying one 4-inch and two smaller guns, and the Hedwig von Wissman, a gunboat of about three times the tonnage of the ex-Kingani.

Then on 9 February 1916, Fifi, under Spicer-Simson, and the Mimi under Lieutenant A. E. Wainwright, R.N.V.R., fought a hotly contested engagement with the Hedwig von Wissman, in fact a running fight of three hours’ duration. A fellow Petty Officer, William Waterhouse, later wrote in his diary:

‘Our first hit from the Fifi’s 12-pounder exploded in the engine room, killing two and wounding one, all whites. Apparently after that all the whites that were left must have left the ship and left the ten blacks aboard; but we did not know and carried on firing till we saw someone waving a white flag. Then we ceased to fire but we had done our work very well, and she was on fire and sinking fast. She went down head first and looked a pretty sight sinking. We signalled to Mimi to rescue the blacks, for it was only then that we caught sight of all the whites away to port, for they had left their ship one hour, or about that, before she sank and left the colours flying and the poor niggers to keep them flying (Brave Germans).’

It would have been doubly satisfactory if the third and largest of the German ships - the Graf von Gotzen - could have been accounted for by the British Flotilla, but she did not risk an engagement. After being bombed by a Belgian aeroplane, she was scuttled by the Germans in Kigoma Harbour, on the eastern shore of the Lake. So ended Germany’s command of Tanganyika. Apart from the material loss inflicted on the enemy, the success of the Naval Expedition did much to enhance British prestige among the locals, not only in the immediate neighbourhood of the Lake, but in the northern districts of Rhodesia and in adjacent German territory.

In consequence of the great success of the expedition, Spicer-Simson was awarded the D.S.O., three officers the D.S.C., and 12 ratings the D.S.M., among the latter Petty Officer Mechanic Graham, one of two members of the R.N.A.S. so honoured.

On his return from Taganyika, he was employed successively at the R.N.A.S. Stations at Killingholme, Newlyn, Dundee, and Calshot, prior to transferring to the newly established Royal Air Force as Sergeant Mechanic and Driver (M.B.) in April 1918. He was finally discharged in April 1920.

Although C. S. Forester’s famous novel The African Queen has a somewhat different story line, it was undoubtedly inspired by the Lake Tanganyika Expedition of 1915-16. So, too, of course, the subsequent oscar-winning film starring Humphrey Bogart. For further reading, in addition to the more well known title Phantom Flotilla, there is a superbly illustrated article, “Transporting a Navy Through the Jungles of Africa in War Time”, which appeared in The National Geographic Magazine in October 1922, by Frank G. Magee, and two interesting features in the Illustrated London News of 20 May and 3 June 1916; sold with a file of research, including correspondence with member’s of the recipient’s family.

the accompanying photographic archive



The recipient’s photograph album, card covers, with ink inscription, ‘Donald M. Graham, Petty Officer Mechanic, Naval Africa Expedition, Lake Tanganyika, 1915-16’ and his address in Glasgow, with 27 captioned images, including such titles as ‘Stuck Fast’, ‘Starting the River Journey’, ‘On the Trek’, ‘Embarking Carriers at Kasanga’, ‘A Mission Boat Destroyed by the Huns’, ‘Carriers Build Our Shelters’, and ‘Civilization at Last’, and also including group photographs ‘Some of the Boys’ and individual portrait photographs (e.g. Able Seaman Potter and his fellow R.N.A.S. Petty Officer Mechanic, C. E. Cobb), the photographs faded and the album and worn overall, but nonetheless an important and hitherto unpublished archive

Together with an equally impressive run of photographic postcards (approximately 90 images), the majority with the recipient’s ink inscribed captions to reverse, the whole as taken by the expedition’s official photographer (Frank Magee) and accordingly more extensive in subject matter - thus greater detail of the epic journey to Tanganyika, in addition to images of personnel, including the recipient (who has marked such photographs with an ‘X’), excellent condition throughout and another rare and fascinating archive