Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War M.S.M. group of four awarded to Chief Yeoman of the Signals W. Thomas, Royal Navy, a veteran of the Witu 1890 operations

East and West Africa 1887-1900, 1 clasp, Witu 1890 (W. Thomas, Lg. Sign., H.M.S. Turquoise); British War Medal 1914-20 (121401 W. Thomas, C.Y.S., R.N.); Royal Navy Meritorious Service Medal, G.V.R., 1st issue (121401 W. Thomas, Ch. Yeo. Sigs., “Victory”, Services During War); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., V.R., narrow suspension (W. Thomas, Yeo. of Sig., H.M.S. Terror), mounted in this order, very fine or better (4) £800-1200

Provenance: DNW, September 2009.

William Thomas was born in Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire in August 1866 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in October 1882. Advanced to Leading Signalman in December 1888, while serving in H.M.S. Turquoise, he participated in the Witu operations of 1890, and was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in April 1898, while serving as a Yeoman of the Signals in the Terror. Having then been pensioned ashore as a Chief Yeoman of the Signals in September 1904, Thomas enrolled in the Royal Fleet Reserve, and was mobilised in August 1914, when appointed to the Portsmouth base Victory I. And he remained similarly employed for the duration of hostilities, services that resulted in the award of his M.S.M. (London Gazette 11 June 1919 refers). He was demobilised in November 1919, and died in Portsmouth, Hampshire, in 1932.

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