Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Lloyd’s War Medal for Bravery at Sea, silver (Fourth Engineer Officer Henry Wilson, S.S. “Denpark”, 12th. May 1942.) in Elkington, Glasgow, case of issue, good very fine £400-500

Provenance: Captain J. Hartford Collection, Glendining’s, September 1992.

Henry Wilson, was Fourth Engineer Office of the cargo ship S.S. Denpark, part of Convoy SL109, sailing from Takoradi to Workington with a cargo of 5,100 tons of manganese ore, and was awarded his Lloyd’s War Medal for Bravery at Sea after the Denpark was torpedoed, 300 miles north-west of the Cape Verde Islands, in the North Atlantic Ocean, by the German U-boat U-128: ‘When the ship was torpedoed on 12 May, 1942, Radio Officer Sturdy and Fourth Engineer Officer Wilson gave their lives through devotion to duty. The radio officer remained in his cabin to send out a distress message, and the fourth engineer stayed to shut off steam from the main engines. The ship quickly sank and both were drowned.’ (Lloyd’s List & Shipping Gazette, 25 May 1943 refers).

The Denpark sank with the loss of 21 of her crew of 46. For his bravery Wilson was also awarded a posthumous King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct (London Gazette 10 November 1942), and he is commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial.