Orders, Decorations and Medals

A scarce Great War D.S.C. group of five awarded to Commander A. H. S. Casswell, Royal Navy, serving with the Naval Siege Guns on shore in Belgium

Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R., the reverse inscribed ‘Nieuport, 1915’; 1914-15 Star (S.Lt., D.S.C. R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut., R.N.); French Croix de Guerre 1914-1916, the reverse arms inscribed ‘A. H. S. Casswell, Nieuport’, very fine (5) £900-1100

D.S.C. London Gazette 7 August 1915: ‘For conspicuous coolness and gallantry on the 28th April, 1915, when in charge of a naval gun on shore in Belgium in removing ammunition from a burning building under heavy and well directed fire.’

Arthur Henry Seymour Casswell was appointed Sub-Lieutenant on 15 September 1913, and Lieutenant on 15 July 1915. From March 1915 he was borne on the books of H.M.S. Victory at Portsmouth, for Miscellaneous duties, and from December 1916 he was 1st Lieutenant of H.M.S. Rosalind. He was in command of the torpedo boat destroyer Owl from October 1918, and subsequently served in Carlisle and Benbow. Casswell became Lieutenant-Commander in July 1923 and saw further service aboard the aircraft carrier Pegasus and the submarine depot ship Titania, becoming No. 2 on her in November 1930. In 1934 he was serving as an R.N.V.R. instructor and retired with the rank of Commander on 5 September 1937.