Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An outstanding Second World War battle of Cape Matapan D.S.C. group of nine awarded to Lieutenant (T.) F. Miller, Royal Navy, who saw much action in the destroyer H.M.S. Nubian, up until May 1941, when she was severely damaged by enemy aircraft in the withdrawal from Crete: Nubian won 13 Battle Honours in the period April 1940 to May 1941, a record only exceeded by one other ship

Distinguished Service Cross G.VI.R., hallmarks for London 1942, the reverse officially dated ‘1942’; British War and Victory Medals (J. 52439 F. Miller, A.B., R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, The Great War awards with contact marks and polished, thus good fine, the remainder generally very fine or better (9) £1800-2200

D.S.C. London Gazette 22 December 1942:

‘For gallantry and distinguished service in the battles of Crete and Cape Matapan, while serving in H.M.S. Nubian.’

Frank Miller was born in Nottingham in July 1900 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in April 1916. His subsequent seagoing appointments in the Great War included the cruisers Aurora in February-May 1917 and the Gloucestershire from June 1917 until January 1918, in which latter period he was appointed Ordinary Seaman. Having then attained Petty Officer status in the late 1920s, he was appointed Gunner (T.) in April 1932.

By the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939, Miller was serving in the Tribal-class destroyer Nubian, and quickly witnessed active service off Norway in April 1940, where she was effectively ‘bombed out’ of the fjords near Trondheim. In the following month, Nubian joined the 14th Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean and it was in that capacity that she lent valuable support to the Warspite in the action with the Italian Fleet off Calabria in July 1940.

It was, however, for Nubian’s subsequent part in the battle of Cape Matapan on 28 March 1941, that Miller won his D.S.C. As Gunner (T.) he was responsible for firing a brace of torpedoes that finished off the Italian cruiser Pola.

In the following month the 14th Destroyer Flotilla fought a successful action with an Italian convoy off Sfax, in addition to assisting in operations during the withdrawal from Greece. On 26 May 1941, during the Crete operations, Nubian was badly damaged by enemy aircraft while escorting the Formidable for her strike on Scarpanto. Seven of her crew were killed and another 12 wounded. An accompanying newspaper report takes up the story:

‘At the same time that the Formidable was hit, the Nubian, one of the destroyers in the screen, was struck by a bomb aft, which wiped out the after guns. A few minutes later a violent explosion sent flames and smoke 200 feet into the air, suggesting that the stored depth-charges had gone up. Commander R. W. Ravenhill, D.S.C., R.N., the Nubian’s captain, found to his surprise that the engines were still working and although the rudder had gone contrived to steer with propellers, setting course for Alexandria. Another destroyer, the Jervis, that closed him after the bomb struck, remained in company. The flooding aft was so extensive that Commander Ravenhill - on Miller’s suggestion to ‘keep the boys busy’ - gave orders to fire torpedoes and jettison everything that would help lighten the ship. He records ruefully that in the process some zealot threw overboard the officers’ laundry, which was in a basket in the after flat. An attack was made on the crippled ship an hour later by five high-level bombers, but by stopping one engine Ravenhill contrived to dodge the bombs and brought his ship into harbour without further damage.’

Miller was now appointed Commissioned Gunner (T.) and, in March 1942, joined the cruiser Mauritius in the Eastern Fleet, but he came ashore to the Durban establishment Assegai in early 1943, which included a Torpedo School. Returning to the U.K. in the summer of 1944, he ended the War at Vernon’s satellite Rodean, the requisitioned girls’ public school near Brighton, where numerous R.N.V.R. officer cadets would have benefited from his knowledge; old school ‘Ring for Mistress’ bells in the dormitories were, alas, left unanswered.

In February 1945, Miller attended a Buckingham Palace investiture to receive his D.S.C. and in January 1947 he was advanced to Lieutenant from the list of Gunners (T.). Having then served in the Navy’s Underwater Weapons Department, he was placed on the Retired List in 1955. His final appointment may have brought him into contact with Commander Lionel “Buster” Crabb, O.B.E., G.M., the famous naval diver who vanished during a reconnaissance of a Soviet cruiser at Portsmouth in April 1956; sold with copied research.