Orders, Decorations and Medals

Four: Warrant Telegraphist P. Bryant, Royal Naval Reserve

1914-15 Star (Wt. Tel., R.N.R.); British War Medal 1914-20 (Wt. Tel., R.N.R.); Mercantile Marine War Medal 1914-18 (Percy Bryant); Victory Medal 1914-19, M.I.D. oak leaf (Wt. Tel., R.N.R.) mounted for display, nearly very fine (4)
£100-140

With original M.I.D. certificate named to ‘Mr Bryant, Marconi Operator, S.S. “Varela”’, mentioned in a despatch from Lieutenant-General Sir A. A. Barrett, K.C.B., K.C.V.O., dated 31 March 1915.

The British India Line Varela was requisitioned in August 1914. Initially used as a supply and despatch vessel, she then became an Indian Expeditionary Force transport, being the headquarters ship for the landings at Fao and Sanniya in the Persian Gulf. Early in 1915 she was intermittently used as a hospital ship at Basra. In October 1915 she was officially converted to an Indian Expeditionary Force hospital ship of 450 beds. For most of the war she was then employed as such, to and from Mesopotamia and the Gulf to India. Lieutenant-General (later Field Marshal) Barrett was employed with the Indian Expeditionary Force in Mesopotamia, 1914-15.