Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Memorial Plaque to Chief Petty Officer P. G. Browning, Royal Navy, killed onboard H.M.S. Vanguard on 9 July 1917 at Scapa Flow

Memorial Plaque (Percy Garnet Browning) extremely fine £60-80

Percy Garnet Browning was born in 1878 at Faversham, Kent, and served with the Royal Navy in South Africa during the Boer War. Advanced Chief Petty Officer, he was awarded his Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal and served in H.M.S. Vanguard during the Great War. 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. Browning was amongst those men killed, and he is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.