Auction Catalogue

28 June 2000

Starting at 10:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations and Medals

The Regus Conference Centre  12 St James Square  London  SW1Y 4RB

Lot

№ 1187

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28 June 2000

Hammer Price:
£500

A Great War submarine action D.S.M. awarded to Able Seaman C. G. Bird, H.M.S. Halcyon, for the destruction of UB-27 in the North Sea in July 1917

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (208864 A.B., H.M.S. Halcyon. North Sea 29 July 1917) very fine £350-450

D.S.M. London Gazette 2 October 1917.

Awarded for the destruction of the German submarine
UB-27 on 29 July 1917. On that morning H.M.S. Halcyon had left Lowestoft and was steaming to the northward when, at 10.57 a.m., she saw a periscope 400 yards away and made straight for the stranger. Halcyon whacked up to 17 knots, steered direct for her, felt a collision, and dropped a depth charge which was exploded off Smith’s Knoll. The wreck of UB-27, commanded by O/L von Stein, was located by a sweep in 24 fathoms.

Charles George Bird was born in Clerkenwell, London, on 30 March 1884, and joined the navy in March 1902. He served aboard H.M.S.
Cornwallis from December 1914 to June 1916, which ship served at Gallipoli longer than any other battleship. She fired the first shot of the first day’s long-range bombardment of the outer forts on 18 February 1915, and was the last to leave Suvla Bay after the evacuation in January 1916. He served in Halcyon from February 1917 to January 1918, during which time, in late 1917, she had embarked a Baby seaplane. Bird was demobilized in June 1921. Sold with copy service record.