The Douglas-Morris Collection of Naval Medals (Part 2)

Conspicuous Gallantry Medal, G.VI.R. (P.O. W. T. W. Scott. P/J.113793) officially engraved naming, good very fine

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

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C.G.M. London Gazette 10 July 1945.

“Glowworm’s light has been quenched”, Winston Churchill told the House of Commons in early 1940, “We can only conclude she has been sunk by greatly superior forces.” For five years this conjecture had to suffice, for the details of Glowworm’s demise following her hopelessly gallant attack against overwhelming odds were only revealed upon the repatriation of the surviving members of the ship’s company from P.O.W. Camps at the end of the war. In April 1940 the British War Cabinet, pressed by the French, had resolved to mine Norwegian waters around Narvik in order to stem the flow of Swedish iron ore to Germany. The British expeditionary force, originally intended for service in the Finnish Winter War, was rapidly recalled, and placed on stand-by in the event of Nazi intervention. The mining operation was due to commence on the 5th, but owing to the French backing out of their agreement to launch mines on the Rhine in exchange, the mining of the Norwegian fjords was delayed from the 5th to the 8th - as events worked out, a vital delay.

On 7 April the battle cruiser Renown, steaming northwards in the Norwegian Sea to take part in the mining operation, received a signal from one of her four escorting destroyers, H.M.S. Glowworm (Lt-Cdr G. B. Roope, R.N.), reporting a man overboard and requesting permission to turn aside and search. For two hours Glowworm scoured the area but all in vain. Presuming the man drowned, Roope called off the search which had caused him to lose touch with Renown. During the night the weather deteriorated and Glowworm was forced to reduce speed, falling further behind the battle cruiser and her consorts. Shortly after daybreak on the 8th Glowworm sighted a destroyer to the north which at first identified herself as Swedish, but was in fact the German destroyer Paul Jakobi. Without further ado the German destroyer opened fire. Having fired twelve salvoes in response from her four 4.7-inch guns, Glowworm could see another German destroyer, the Bernd von Arnim, whose mess decks were crammed with invasion troops for Trondheim. The Bernd von Arnim, preoccupied with getting the troops safely to Norway, attempted to evade Glowworm, and while Roope thought that he was being lured on to a more powerful enemy force, he decided to follow to see what big ships the enemy had at sea.

Though unscathed thus far by enemy action, Glowworm’s gun director control tower had been flooded by heavy seas, two more men had been swept overboard and several more had been injured by her violent rolling. A short while later five miles to the northwest, the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, armed with eight 8-inch and twelve 4.1-inch guns, was sighted on a bearing of 320 degrees. She, like the Bernd von Arnim, was full of troops bound for Norway. As Roope sent away an enemy sighting report, the 10,000-ton Hipper began shelling the 1,345-ton Glowworm and hit her with her first salvo. Roope decided on a torpedo attack under cover of smoke, and as he put his plan into execution, Glowworm was hit again, the shell killing and wounding the surgeon’s sick-bay party in the Captain’s day cabin. Another shell brought down part of the foremast and wireless aerials which fouled the steam siren on the funnel so that Glowworm went into action emitting a strange, tortured wail. The spread of five torpedoes missed, and Glowworm received another direct hit, this time sparking off a large fire in the engine room. Roope tried a second torpedo attack and, emerging from the smoke-screen and crossing Hipper’s bows from port to starboard, fired a second spread which again missed. Roope now adopted the more desperate plan of ramming the Hipper, and with Glowworm making twenty knots, he ordered a sharp turn to starboard and succeded in striking the enemy on the starboard side, tearing away about 100 feet of armoured plating, but failing to cause vital damage. Glowworm drew away and, although swept by fire from Hipper’s short range weapons, on fire and settling by the bows, she managed to get off a final salvo and hit Hipper from a range of 400 yards. At 10 a.m., Roope gave the order to abandon ship, but remained on the bridge himself, smoking a cigarette. Captain Helmuth Heye of the Hipper chivalrously stayed for over an hour to pick up the survivors and ultimately rescued one officer and thirty-nine ratings, including Petty Officer Scott, out of Glowworm’s total complement of eight officers and 144 ratings. Roope was seen in the water alongside Hipper and was thrown a rope. He caught it but being too exhausted to hold on fell back and was never seen again. He was subsequently awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.

Petty Officer Scott was repatriated from Marlag und Milag Nord, Westertimke (Tarnstedt) in 1945 and, on 18 July received the following communication from the Admiralty: ‘Sir, I am commanded by My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to inform you that they have learned with great pleasure that, on the advice of the First Lord, the King has been graciously pleased to award you the Conspicuous Gallantry medal for great bravery in charge of two of the guns of H.M.S. GLOWWORM, during a very gallant action with the German heavy cruiser HIPPER fought on 8th April 1940 against overwhelming odds. After your ship had rammed the enemy and was about to sink from the damage she had received in the action, your guns re-opened fire and scored hit at close range.’

This is the first action in the 1939-45 War for which a Victoria Cross was awarded. In addition there were three awards of the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.


The C.G.M. is accompanied by an original Admiralty letter confirming the award with citation, portrait photograph in uniform showing C.G.M. and other ribbons, copy photograph of H.M.S. GLOWWORM taken prior to the War and another taken from the ADMIRAL HIPPER's gunsight showing survivors clambering up the upturned GLOWWORM just before she sank.