Orders, Decorations and Medals

A poignant Great War campaign group of three awarded to Stoker 1st Class G. Jarvis, Royal Navy, who, having been present in the first naval engagement of the War, was killed in action in H.M.S. Amphion on 6 August 1914 - 32 hours after the declaration of hostilities

1914-15 Star (K. 16726 G. Jarvis, Sto. 1, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (K. 16726 G. Jarvis, Sto. 1, R.N.), together with related Memorial Plaque 1914-18 (George Jarvis), good very fine and better (4) £400-500

George Jarvis was born in Stonehouse, Devon, in June 1894 and entered the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in November 1912.

Drafted to the recently commissioned light cruiser Amphion in April 1913, he was similarly employed in the rate of Stoker 1st Class on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, and he was consequently present at the first naval engagement of the War when Amphion sank the German mine-layer Konigin Luise on the 5th: the very next day, however, Amphion became the first ship of the Royal Navy to be sunk in the War, when she struck one of her victim’s mines. The following account of Amphion’s all too brief wartime career is included:

Great Britain declared war on Germany at 2300 hours on 4 August 1914. In the early hours of the following morning Amphion sailed from the port of Harwich together with four destroyers of the 3rd Flotilla. By daylight on the 5th they were well out in the North Sea sweeping towards the Heligoland Bight.

A few hours after leaving port one of the destroyers received a report from a fishing vessel who had seen an unknown vessel “throwing things over the side” about 20 miles north of Outer Gabbard. At 1025 hours Amphion sighted an unknown steamer and sent destroyers Lance and Landrail to investigate. The steamer was, in fact, the German Konigin Luise, a former Hamburg-Holland passenger ferry which had been converted into an auxiliary mine-layer. On the night of 4th August she had left her home port of Emden with cargo of 180 mines and steamed south through the North Sea to lay mines off the Thames Estuary. She resembled the steamers of the Great Eastern Railway that plied between Harwich and the Hook of Holland, and had hurriedly been painted in their colours of black, buff and yellow to disguise herself.

As the two British destroyers approached her, Konigin Luise made off at 20 knots altering her course, before disappearing into a rain squall where she lay further mines. The destroyers pursued and at 10.30 Lance opened fire, the first shots of the First World War (the forward gun, which fired the shot, is preserved in the Imperial War Museum). They were soon joined by Amphion, which had won the Fleet Gunnery Prize for 1914, and the German came under a very accurate fire. Konigin Luise was only lightly armed and offered little resistance. When her efforts to escape into neutral waters, and to draw the British Ships onto her minefield were unavailing, Commander Biermann gave the order to scuttle her. At 1222, on fire amidships and with smoke and steam pouring from her, Konigin Luise rolled over to port and sank.

56 of a crew of 130 were rescued by Amphion. Half of these prisoners were incarcerated in a compartment in the cruiser’s bow for the grim reason that “if we go up on a mine, they might as well go first.”

During the action, gun crews from the disengaged side of Amphion crossed over to watch the firing and showed their appreciation of good salvoes by cheering and applauding. After the action Captain Fox mustered all hands and reprimanded the men for leaving their posts. He reminded them that they were at war and each man had to stick to his own duty. The ship’s company saw sense of this and rather enjoyed the lecture.

Returning to Harwich, Amphion then sighted another ship of the same appearance and colours as Konigin Luise but this one was flying an enormous German flag. The destroyers opened fire. Captain Fox recognised her as a genuine Great Eastern Railway steamer and signalled to cease fire; at the same time, the vessel hauled down the German colours and raised the red ensign. She was the St. Petersburg, flying the German flag because she was carrying the German ambassador Prince Lichnowsky and his staff to neutral Holland. Her identity and mission established, she was allowed to proceed.

At 0645 hours on 6 August Amphion struck one of the mines laid by the Konigin Luise. It exploded just beside the forebridge and broke the ships back. The explosion practically destroyed the bridge; all the occupants, including Captain Fox, were badly burnt, and smoke and flame poured from the slits in the conning tower. All the focsle gun crews were killed, as were many men on the forward mess decks, where the hands were having breakfast. Of the 21 German prisoners in the forward compartment, all but one were killed.

Despite his injuries Captain Fox took charge. The ship was well down by the bows and attempts to extinguish the raging fires failed. Abandon ship was ordered. As most of Amphion’s boats had been destroyed, the destroyers sent their boats to rescue the crew. There was no confusion or panic; the survivors fell in on deck and, within twenty minutes of the first explosion, all survivors were aboard the destroyers.

Unfortunately, although Amphion’s engines had been stopped, she still had way on, and at 0730 hours, just as the last boat-load of survivors had been taken off, she struck a second mine. Her magazine detonated in a huge cloud of pale yellow smoke and the fore-part of the ship was completely disintegrated, showering the attending destroyers with debris. One 4 inch shell fell on board the Lark, killing two of Amphion’s men and a German prisoner. Amphion then suddenly slid astern and sank at 07.05. One officer and 150 men were lost.’

Jarvis, who was 20 years of age and the son of James and Rhoda Jarvis of Stonehouse, Plymouth, has no known grave and is commemorated on the Plymouth War Memorial; sold with a file of research, including several wartime postcards, one of them a German issue depicting the loss of the Amphion.