Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Great War D.S.O. group of five for the sinking of a U-boat awarded to Lieutenant Commander P. S. Peat, Royal Naval Reserve
Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., in its damaged case of issue; 1914 Star; British and Mercantile Marine War Medals, these three renamed; Victory Medal (Lieut., R.N.R.) very fine (5)

D.S.O. London Gazette 7 June 1918. ‘For services in action against enemy submarines.’

Percy Sutcliffe Peat was a native of Acrington, Lancashire, and served during the war in various activities at sea. It was in April 1918, whilst in command of a small herring drifter, the Coreopsis, a unit in the fleet of small craft which were carrying out an intensive counter movement to the German’s submarine menace, that he engaged a powerful enemy undersea craft, sank it, and took the crew of 36 prisoner. The drifter, which carried a crew of twelve hands, was armed only with a light gun but Lieut-Commander Peat took his ship into action with such skill that the gunner fought the submarine with great effect. The submarine, ten times the size of Coreopsis, and possessing twice her speed, could neither turn nor run for safety, and, having been hit early on, could not submerge. The deadly marksmanship of the gunner backed up the good work of the bridge, completely defeating the enemy, and eventually the submarine hoisted the white flag. The crew were taken on board the little drifter and the submarine foundered. It was for this feat that Lieut-Commander Peat received the D.S.O., his Skipper the D.S.C., and every other rating in the ship being decorated. At a subsequent period Lieut-Commander Peat was responsible for the sinking of another submarine. At the end of the war he took up a post on the instructing staff of the Marine School, South Shields, and later entered the service of the Tyne Improvement Commission as Deputy Harbour Master.

The lot is sold with original Warrant for the D.S.O.; Royal Naval Reserve Commission, dated 22 March 1915; Board of Trade Certificate of Competency as Extra Master 1919; two Admiralty ‘flimsies’, one of which states ‘He has commanded divisions of trawlers and drifters with marked success and on two occasions displayed most conspicuous gallantry. A brilliant officer and a gallant seaman.’; four letters of recommendation from various Shipping Companies; a bullion naval cap badge, and various news cuttings reporting his death in 1936, and describing his war time exploits in detail.