Orders, Decorations and Medals

A fine Great War Gallipoli landings D.S.C. group of six awarded to Commander G. F. D. Freer, Royal Navy: as a 17-year-old Midshipman in the battleship Lord Nelson, he was given command of one of the boats at the landings on ‘W’ Beach, scene of the famous “Six V.Cs Before Breakfast” won by the Lancashire Fusiliers

Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R., hallmarks for London 1914, the reverse privately engraved, ‘G. F. D. Freer, R.N., 5-10-15’; 1914-15 Star (Mid. G. F. D. Freer, D.S.C., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Sub. Lt. G. F. D. Freer, R.N.); Defence and War Medals 1939-45, very fine and better (6) £1800-2200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The John Chidzey Collection.

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D.S.C. London Gazette 16 August 1915:

‘In recognition of their services, as mentioned in the foregoing despatch.’

Namely the Naval despatch of 1 July 1915, covering the Gallipoli landings 25-26 April 1915.

The original joint recommendation states:

‘These men were Midshipmen of boats on the landing on ‘W’ Beach. The Midshipmen in charge of steamboats behaved with exemplary skill, courage and coolness under a heavy fire.’

George Francis Dudley Freer was born in January 1898 and entered the Royal Navy as a Midshipman on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, when he joined H.M.S. Ocean, in which battleship he was embarked for the Dardanelles in the following year.

Having then participated in the bombardment of the Turkish forts protecting the Narrows on 1 March 1915, when the Ocean was hit by mobile enemy batteries, he was also present on the occasion of her loss when she was mined while going to the assistance of the Irresistible in Erenkui Bay on the 18th - Ocean was abandoned that evening, after taking further punishment from shore batteries.

Removing as a Midshipman to another battleship, the Lord Nelson, Freer was subsequently present in the Gallipoli operations of 25-26 April 1915, on which occasion he was given command of one of the boats bound for ‘W’ Beach, scene of the famous landing of the Lancashire Fusiliers, who won “Six V.Cs before Breakfast”. One of those V.Cs, Captain R. R. Willis, later described how the little flotilla of boats came under murderous fire:

‘Not a sign of life was to be seen on the Peninsula in front of us. It might have been a deserted land we were nearing in our little boats. Then crack! The stroke oar of my boat fell forward, to the angry astonishment of his mates. The signal for the massacre had been given: rapid fire, machine-guns and deadly accurate sniping opened from the cliffs above, and soon casualties included the rest of the crew and many men ... The timing of the ambush was perfect; we were completely exposed and helpless in our slow-moving boats, just target practice for the concealed Turks, and within a few minutes only half of the thirty men in my boat were left alive. We were now 100 yards from the shore, and I gave the order “Overboard’. We scrambled out into some four feet of water, and some of the boats with their cargo of dead and wounded floated away on the currents still under fire from the snipers. With this unpromising start the advance began. Many were hit in the sea, and no response was possible, for the enemy was in trenches well above our heads ... ’

Freer was awarded the D.S.C.

Subsequently engaged with the Goeben off Gaba Tepe, and at the bombardment of Turkish batteries on 6 May, prior to the second battle of Krithia, the Lord Nelson afterwards became the flagship of Vice-Admiral Rosslyn Erskine-Wemyss. And Freer was present in her at several more bombardments before removing to the battleship Neptune in October 1915. Accordingly, he was present at Jutland in the following year, when Neptune was credited with scoring several hits on the battle cruiser Lutzow.

Freer was advanced to Sub. Lieutenant in July 1917 and joined the destroyer Moresby in the following month, in which capacity he remained actively employed until the War’s end.

Placed on the Retired List as a Lieutenant-Commander in June 1927, he was recalled in the rank of Commander on the renewal of hostilities in September 1939 and served in the Naval Ordnance Inspection Department until being invalided in October 1941. The Commander died in Bournemouth in September 1967.