Orders, Decorations and Medals

A good Second World War ‘King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct’, post-war B.E.M. group of seven awarded to Stoker Petty Officer W. J. Bewers, Royal Navy, afterwards an employee at Malta’s Boom Defence Depot

British Empire Medal, (Civil) G.VI.R., 1st issue (William J,. Bewers); 1914-15 Star (K. 21858 W. J. Bewers, Sto. 1, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (K. 21858 W. J. Bewers, Sto. 1, R.N.); Defence Medal 1939-45; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 2nd issue (K. 21858 W. J. Bewers, S.P.O., H.M.S. Pembroke); King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct, oval plastic badge, the L.S. & G.C. with slightly bent suspension bar, the Great War period awards with contact wear and polished, fine, the others very fine or better (7) £350-400

B.E.M. London Gazette 1 January 1951.

King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct London Gazette 11 June 1943.

William James Bewers was born in Plumstead, Kent in May 1893 and entered the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in May 1914.

Joining the battleship H.M.S. Agamemnon in September 1914, he was advanced to Stoker 1st Class and remained similarly employed until coming ashore to Pembroke II in November 1917.

Thus a period of protracted employment in the Dardanelles in 1915-16, when Agamemnon participated in the major bombardments of the Turkish forts and supported the main landings on 25 April. Hit by large calibre shells on several occasions, she suffered a number of casualties and considerable damage, so much so that she was withdrawn to Malta for a refit in May 1915. Returning to the fray as part of the Eastern Mediterranean Squadron, later to be re-designated the Aegean Squadron, Agamemnon remained actively employed in support of the Salonika operations, and as a guardship against any attempted break out by the Goeben and Breslau, and in May 1917, her gunners damaged the zeppelin LZ-85, forcing the enemy airship to crash land.

Bewers’s final seagoing appointment in the Great War was in the cruiser Yarmouth from July 1918. Advanced to Stoker Petty Officer in March 1926, he was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in January 1929 and found employment at Malta’s Boom Defence Depot on leaving the R.N. in the 1930s.

It was in that capacity that he was awarded his King’s Commendation for Gallant Conduct in 1943 - an award most likely stemming from bravery under air attack in the dockyard area during the famous siege; so, too, his B.E.M. in 1951, when serving as a Chargeman (Grade III); sold with copied research.