The Douglas-Morris Collection of Naval Medals (Part 1)

Four: Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R., the reverse inscribed ‘Lieut. G. R. Shaw, R.N.R. Ostende 9th-10th May, 1918’; 1914-15 Star (Mid. G. R. Shaw, R.N.R.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. (S.Lt., R.N.R.) the Victory Medal officially re-impressed, otherwise good very fine (4)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Douglas-Morris Collection of Naval Medals.

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D.S.C. London Gazette 29 August1918:

“Second in command of Coastal Motor Boat 25B which escorted VINDICTIVE with a smoke screen close up to the entrance of Ostend Harbour and assisting her with guiding lights. His vessel then torpedoed the eastern and western piers and then engaged the machine guns at point blank range. During the engagement the Commanding Officer Lt R. McBean was wounded and the Chief Motor Mechanic killed. Having seen VINDICTIVE inside the piers and the work of his vessel completed, Sub Lt Shaw brought her safely back to harbour.”

Escorting VINDICTIVE on her final approaches to the Canal were two fifty five foot Coastal Motor Boats, 25B (Lieut R.H. McBean) and 26B (Lieut. C.F.B. Bowlby). Their orders were to proceed ahead of VINDICTIVE until within sight of the canal mouth whereupon they would drop calcium light buoys and fire flare rockets to burst above and illuminate the canal entrance.

In thick fog this was much easier said than done, and Lieutenant Bowlby proceeded with a commendable caution which with anything other than damned bad luck should have been duly rewarded. For a moment, in fact, he thought it would be so rewarded, for there was a momentary gap in the fog and he glimpsed the eastern pierhead at the very moment when his boat, his guns and his torpedo-tube pointed exactly at it. He pressed the button, discharged the torpedo and increased speed, with the result that he was directly above his torpedo when it hit either the bottom or a submerged object and exploded, blowing C.M.B. 26B several feet up into the air. She did not sink immediately, but her seams were badly started, her communication system wrecked and her signal and lighting arrangements reduced to chaos. Lieutenant Bowlby turned her away and took her slowly to seaward, with the port engine firing on six cylinders and the starboard engine bone dry, for the connections had burst and the engine casing was empty. C.M.B. 26B made nearly three miles before the port engine seized up and she was eventually towed home by HMS MELPOMENE.

Bowlby's partner, Lieutenant McBean in C.M.B. 25B had remained in closer touch with VINDICTIVE, and in the prevailing conditions of visibility, he decided that he would act more in the spirit of his orders by staying in this relative position, than by venturing further inshore. It was a decision which very quickly became well-nigh impossible to carry out, for at 0200, when McBean was slightly ahead and to starboard of VINDICTIVE's bows, he suddenly found himself in the middle of the enemy barrage across the canal mouth, and was forced to weave erratically between sudden and gigantic waterspouts. This meant, of course, that he lost basic bearings, although he managed surprisingly to keep VINDICTIVE on his port quarter, but after a while he realised that direction must either have been lost or deliberately changed. VINDICTIVE still loomed over his shoulder, but by now they should all have been either in the canal, or ashore. Cautiously McBean ventured ahead and to starboard, with the result that almost immediately C.M.B. 25B was alone in the grey-brown, but shell-shot and extremely noisy night. He circled once without result, but was rewarded upon repeating the manoeuvre by running into a patch of clearer visibility which suddenly showed him Ostend piers, and VINDICTIVE well to the east of them. McBean went after her, firing green Verey lights until they were apparently seen and VINDICTIVE started to turn; then he decided that his responsibilities had been amply discharged and C.M.B. 25B opened her throttles and went into battle.

It was 0215 by now and there was not a German gun in the vicinity unloaded or unmanned, and by gunners who were very wide awake and looking for targets. The eastern pier gunners felt the effects of McBean's suddenly released aggressiveness even before they saw his boat, streaking across between the two piers, her Lewis-guns blazing and a torpedo-track already penciling its line through the water towards them. As the port torpedo dropped away, McBean swung across towards the western pier, and Sub-Lieutenant G.R. Shaw on the foredeck Lewis-guns switched his attentions to the new objective, leaving the stern guns to protect their rear. The western pier was perhaps four hundred yards away from them when they started their attack and the guns above the pier had found them before they had gone fifty, while enfilading fire came at them from the eastern pier until the port torpedo exploded. By then they had closed to two hundred and fifty yards and were racing along a narrow lane between two apparently continuous red tracer-lines; the Lewis-guns were becoming hot, and empty cartridge cases rattled and bounced on the deck timbers. As the starboard torpedo plunged away the C.M.B. hung for a second in the recoil, swung slightly away from the pier, then shuddered as a stream of bullets hammered into her decks and hull. Chief Motor Mechanic Keel was killed instantly and McBean was hit and had to prop himself up in the corner of the deckhouse until Shaw could leave the guns and come aft to take over. McBean was badly but not seriously wounded; but he had good reason for satisfaction. As C.M.B. 25B turned away and made out into the darkness, VINDICTIVE made her last eight-point turn, then steamed through the canal entrance. Lt R. H. McBean R.N., and Sub Lt G.R. Shaw, both received the Distinguished Service Cross and two of the crew received the Distinguished Service Medal.

George Robertson Shaw joined the Royal Naval Reserve as a Midshipman on 10 December 1914. Appointed to the Battleship TRIUMPH on 27 January 1915 for service with the Mediterranean Fleet, he took part in the preliminary shelling of the Turkish forts in the Dardanelles in February 1915 and was present at the landings at Gallipoli on 25 April. On 25 May, off Gaba Tepe TRIUMPH was attacked with torpedoes by a German Submarine, the ship, having been hit, capsized and sunk within ten minutes. Of her ship's company over 500 were rescued by the Destroyer CHELMER, but three officers and 70 men lost their lives. In the Autumn of 1915 he was appointed to the Gunboat H.M.S. SPEY and in 1916 transferred to H.M.S. EGMONT, Base Ship Malta, and saw service in Port Said, Egypt. Promoted to Acting Sub Lieutenant in 1917 and confirmed in that rank on 21 January 1918, he joined H.M.S. HYACINTH, Light Cruiser, and was present at the skirmishes off the Rufigi River Delta, German East Africa, in April 1917. Appointed to the Light Cruiser ARROGANT on 1 February 1918 and whilst on the books of this vessel took part in the Ostend Raid in May 1918, as 1st Lieutenant of the Coastal Motor Boat 25B, where his gallantry earned him the Distinguished Service Cross and an M.I.D. He was promoted Acting Lieutenant on joining H.M.S. THESUS on 7 January 1919, and saw service in the Caspian Sea including the surrender of the Bolshovik fleet in March 1919. Following the cessation of hostilities he was demobilised in 1919. Sold with an original portrait photograph and some contemporary news cuttings.