Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The N.G.S. medal awarded to Surgeon William Mellis Mearns, R.N., who was killed in action when H.M.S. Formidable was torpedoed in the English Channel, 1 January 1915

Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Persian Gulf 1909-1914 (Surg. W. Mearns, M.B. R.N. H.M.S. Redbreast) nearly extremely fine £280-320

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Awards to the Medical Services from the Collection of the late Tony Sabell.

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William Mellis Mearns was born in Gateshead on 7 December 1884. He was educated at Aldenham School, Elstree, Hertfordshire and at Aberdeen University, graduating M.B., Ch.B. in 1908. He entered the Royal Navy in the same year and served on H.M.S. Teal on the Yangtse River, 1911-14, and on H.M.S. Redbreast in the Persian Gulf. Returning to England only days before the outbreak of war, he was posted to the pre-dreadnought battleship H.M.S. Formidable. Surgeon Mearns was lost when the ship was torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel on 1 January 1915. His name is commemorated on the Chatham Memorial.

With copied research.