Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Leading Signaller E. E. Young, Royal Navy

1914-15 Star (J.3794 Sig., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (J.3794 L. Sig., R.N.); Royal Fleet Reserve L.S. & G.C., G.V.R. ‘Coinage head’ (J.3794 (Po.B,12831) L. Sig. R.F.R.), good very fine (4) £50-70

Ernest Edwin Young was born in 1893 at Canning Town, London. By trade a glassblower, he entered the Royal Navy in 1909 as a Boy on H.M.S. Ganges. He gained the rank of Ordinary Signalman in 1911, Signalman in 1912 and Leading Signalman in 1916. In his early years he served aboard the cruisers, H.M.Ships Bacchante and Aboukir and the pre-dreadnaught battleship H.M.S. Queen. Just prior to the Great War he transferred to the submarine service. Between 4.8.1916 and 24.7.1917 he served aboard H.M. Submarine E.19 in the Baltic, which was commanded for much of that time by Commander F. N. A. Cromie, D.S.O. In April 1918 the submarine was scuttled at Helsingfors to avoid capture. During December 1917 - June 1919 he served on H.M. Submarine L.2 and was aboard on 29.2.1918 when she was mistaken for a German U-Boat by the U.S. destroyers Paulding, Davis and Trippe. They opened fire, causing her to dive, after which they followed up with depth charges which jammed the submarine’s after hydroplanes which caused her to hit the seabed. With great skill, Lieutenant-Commander Bernard Acworth managed to bring the submarine to the surface where she was again fired upon by the American ships. It was no doubt a disappointment to the destroyers, ‘deprived of their prey’, when the L.2 managed to hoist the White Ensign and make its recognition signals!