Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Chief Engine Room Artificer J. W. Foster, Royal Navy, killed onboard H.M.S. Vanguard on 9 July 1917 at Scapa Flow

British War and Victory Medals (269774 J. W. Foster. C.E.R.A.2 R.N.); Memorial Plaque (John William Foster) good very fine (3) £240-280

John William Foster was born on 9 June 1876 at Lincoln, and joined the Royal Navy as an Engine Room Artificer 4th Class on 10 July 1899. Advanced Chief Engine Room Artificer 2nd Class on 15 January 1914, he served during the Great War in H.M.S. Chatham, before transferring to H.M.S. Vanguard on 13 June 1916. Just before midnight on 9 July 1917, Vanguard, at anchor at Scapa Flow, suffered an explosion, probably caused by an unnoticed stokehold fire heating cordite stored against an adjacent bulkhead in one of the two magazines which served the amidships gun turrets 'P' and 'Q'. She sank almost instantly, killing an estimated 804 men; there were only two survivors. In terms of loss of life, the destruction of the Vanguard remains the most catastrophic accidental explosion in the history of the United Kingdom, and one of the worst accidental losses of the Royal Navy. Foster was amongst those men killed, and he is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.