Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Great War American Navy D.S.M. group of six awarded to Admiral A. E. A. Grant, Royal Navy, who was specially concerned with the production of merchant ships in the Great War to make good the wastage from submarine attack

Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, dated reverse, no clasp (Sub. Lieut. A. E. A. Grant, H.M.S. Achilles); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (Commr. A. E. A. Grant, R.N., H.M.S. Racoon); British War Medal 1914-20 (R. Adml. A. E. A. Grant); Coronation 1911; United States of America, Navy Distinguished Service Medal, gilt and enamel; Khedive’s Star 1882, mounted as worn, edge bruising and contact marks, generally very fine or better (6) £1200-1400

Alfred Ernest Albert Grant was born in April 1861, the son of John Glasgow Grant, C.M.G. Entering Britannia as a Cadet in August 1874, he first went to sea as a Midshipman in H.M.S. Hercules, the flagship in the Mediterranean of the Hon. Sir James Drummond.

Having then been advanced to Sub. Lieutenant in October 1880, he served in the Achilles during the Egyptian War of 1882, when he was landed with the Naval Brigade and took part in the defence of Alexandria after the bombardment by the Fleet (Medal; Khedive’s Star).

Next appointed to the gunboat Bulldog on the North American Station, he returned home to Excellent in September 1885 to qualify as Lieutenant in gunnery - as it happened the same year that King George V, as a Sub. Lieutenant, attended the same establishment. For his own part, Grant passed out with top marks and quickly found employment in the battleship Temeraire, under Captain E. C. Drummond, a nephew of Admiral Drummond, in whose flagship he had served as a Midshipman.

Back ashore by 1892, Grant was employed at the Sheerness depot, gaining advancement to Commander in June 1896, following which he was employed on the staff of the Naval Ordnance Department at the Admiralty for three years. Then in January 1900, he received his first independent command, the light cruiser Racoon, in which capacity he served with the squadron blockading Delagoa Bay during the Boer War (Queen’s Medal).

In 1901-04 he commanded the light cruiser Pyramus in the Mediterranean, and in 1905-08, after being promoted to Captain, he was in command of the cruiser Forte, at the Cape, and the Barfleur, at Portsmouth. He was then appointed to the command of the Gunnery School at Chatham but returned to sea with command of the battleship Lord Nelson in the Home Fleet in 1910-11. In June of the latter year the Lord Nelson was the flagship at the Coronation Review of Admiral Sir Arthur Moore, the C.-in-C. Portsmouth, and Grant was awarded the Coronation Medal.

From 1913, when promoted to flag rank, he was A.D.C. to the King, his subsequent career in the Great War being summarised in his Times obituary in the following terms:

‘At the outbreak of hostilities he was the Superintendent of Pembroke Dockyard and served there until September 1915. It was then beginning to be realised that the threat to our seaborne trade by the U-Boats might prove serious, and mercantile construction, which had been suspended in 1914 in favour of warship output, was resumed. Admiral Grant was appointed President of the Admiralty organisation for expediting the building of merchant vessels, and rendered timely and valuable service in this capacity. In 1916-17 he also served as President of the Admiralty Motor Transport Committee, and from 1917 to 1919 was Admiral Superintendent of contract-built ships in the yards on the north-east and north-west coasts of England, with headquarters at Newcastle.’

He was awarded the American Navy D.S.M., ‘for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services in a position of great responsibility to the Government of the United States.’

Advanced to Vice-Admiral in 1919 and to Admiral in 1924, Grant died in London in August 1933; sold with copied research.