Orders, Decorations and Medals

A good Second World War B.E.M. group of six awarded to Senior Commissioned Ordnance Engineer E. W. T. Sainsbury, Royal Navy, who was mentioned in despatches for his services in H.M.S. Norfolk during the Bismarck episode

British Empire Medal, (Military) G.VI.R., 1st issue (C.O.A. Edwin W. T. Sainsbury, D./M. 37652 R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; War Medal 1939-45, M.I.D. oak leaf; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (M. 37652 E. W. T. Sainsbury, C.O.A. 2, H.M.S. Apollo), good very fine and better (6) £550-650

B.E.M. London Gazette 1 January 1943.

Mention in despatches London Gazette 1 January 1942.

Edwin William Thomas Sainsbury was born at Queenstown, Co. Cork in June 1900 and entered the Royal Navy as an Ordnance Artificer 4th Class in August 1923. Advanced to Ordnance Artificer 3rd Class in H.M.S. Thunderer in August 1926, his inter-war seagoing appointments also included the monitor Erebus, the battleship Rodney and the cruiser Apollo, aboard which latter ship, as an Ordnance Artificer 2nd Class, he was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in July 1938.

His subsequent wartime awards of the B.E.M. and a mention in despatches were in respect of services in the cruiser Norfolk, the latter more particularly for his part in the Bismarck action (Home Fleet Honours List, refers).

The Norfolk’s role throughout the pursuit of the Bismarck was a significant one and she came under the Bismarck’s direct fire on at least one - hair-raising - occasion. Ludovic Kennedy’s Pursuit takes up the story:

‘Norfolk, meanwhile, fifteen miles away inside the fog, had picked up the first of Suffolk’s signals: her Captain Alfred Phillips was in his sea-cabin eating cheese on toast when the Yeoman of Signals burst in with the news. Phillips at once increased speed and steered for the open water, but in his eagerness not to lose touch, he misjudged the direction, and emerged from the fog to find Bismarck only six miles ahead, coming straight at him. This time there was no doubting her readiness. As Norfolk swung to starboard to get back to the safety of the fog, Bismarck’s guns roared in anger for the first time. On the Norfolk’s bridge they saw the ripple of the orange flashes and brown puffs of cordite smoke, heard the scream of the shells - a sound which some have likened to the tearing of linen and others to the approach of an express train. Admiral Wake-Walker saw the sea to starboard pocked with shell splinters, observed one complete burnished shell bounce off the water fifty yards away, ricochet over the bridge. Great columns of milk-white water rose in the air, two hundred feet high. Five salvoes in all Bismarck fired before Norfolk regained the mist: some straddled, and splinters came aboard; but there were no casualties or hits.’

The 8-inch guns of Norfolk, alongside the heavier armaments of the Rodney and King George V, subsequently contributed to the final bombardment of the Bismarck and, as the Dorsetshire’s torpedoes delivered the coup-de-grâce, so ended one of the greatest threats ever placed upon allied convoys in the North Sea.

Sainsbury undoubtedly remained actively employed in the Norfolk during her subsequent service on the Arctic run 1941-43, including the ill-fated P.Q. 17 operation.

Advanced to Warrant Ordnance Officer in May 1943, he was still serving at the time of his death at Drake on 14 November 1954, by which stage he had been promoted to Senior Commissioned Ordnance Engineer. He was buried in Weston Military Cemetery, Plymouth; sold with a file of copied research.