Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An early Great War M.C. group of four awarded to Captain E. C. Simpson, General List, killed when the S.S. Transylvania was sunk in the Mediterranean on 4 May 1917

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed; 1914 Star (Lieut., R.T.E.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt.) contained in a fitted case by John Dyson & Sons, Leeds, extremely fine (4) £1000-1200

M.C. London Gazette 18 February 1915. ‘Lieutenant (temporary) E. C. Simpson’

Lieutenant Eric Cograve Simpson, R.T.O., entered France on 21 September 1914. Awarded the Military Cross - an early award. As a Captain on the General List, he was killed/drowned on 4 May 1917 when the S.S. Transylvania was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine. He was buried in Gruissan Communal Cemetery, Aude, France. He was the son of John James and Emily Simpson.

The liner Transylvania, of 14,348 tons was being used as a troopship and was en route from Marseilles to Alexandria with an escort of two Japanese destroyers, when she was hit by a torpedo some two and half miles south of Cape Vado, Gulf of Genoa. She made for the shore whilst one destroyer attempted to take off troops and the other circled the ships to ward off the German submarine. Despite this, another torpedo was fired and hit the troopship which quickly went down. Two naval officers and 10 men of the crew, plus 29 military officers and 373 other ranks were killed. With copied m.i.c. and gazette extract.