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

Eight: George Cross, the reverse officially inscribed (C.P.O. Reginald Vincent Ellingworth, P/J26011. 20th December 1940); 1914-15 Star Trio (Ord./A.B. R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., Admiral’s bust, 2nd issue with fixed suspension (P.O. H.M.S. Resource), the Great War medals polished, good fine, otherwise very fine or better (8)

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

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See colour plate VIII.

George Cross (Posthomous) London Gazette 20 December1940.

“Chief Petty Officer Reginald Vincent Ellingworth worked as an assistant to Lieutenant Commander R. J. H. Ryan in rendering safe magnetic mines. They worked together on many assignments sharing equally the dangers involved. The principal hazard of these mines was the fact that the clock of the bomb fuse was normally timed to explode the mine about 22 seconds after it had landed. If the fuse failed to explode, the clock could be restarted by the slightest movement, even a footfall. The amount that the clock fuse had already run could never be known, and once it had re-started the time to escape could not be more than a few seconds. At Dagenham Essex the two officers tackled such a mine hanging by a parachute in a warehouse and were both killed by its explosion. Chief Petty Officer Ellingworth had previously been commended by the Captain of H.M.S VERNON for his work on mine disposal.”

Lieutenant Commander Richard Ryan had a high reputation amongst the men of H.M.S. VERNON and it was he who earned distinction in the early days of the war for dismantling the first magnetic mine that was found. It was in a German aircraft that crashed on the sands at Clacton and it is widely recognised that when he exposed the secrets of the first of Hitler’s secret weapons he helped to save the lives of thousands of Allied sailors.

After his encounter with the magnetic mine, Lieut Commander Ryan disarmed a number of others in London and the London area before the fateful call to that warehouse in Dagenham. On all his exploits, Ryan was accompanied by Chief Petty Officer Reginald Vincent Ellingworth. The two men faced many dangers together and they were killed by the same explosion. Their posthumous awards of the George Cross were announced in the same issue of the London Gazette.

Reginald Vincent Ellingworth was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, on 28 January 1898. He was the son of Frank and Kate Ellingworth, and husband of Jessie Ellingworth (née Day) of Portsmouth. He was aged 42 years when he was killed and is buried at Portsmouth Milton Cemetery in Hampshire.

To date there have been only 152 direct awards of the George Cross.