Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Lord Mayor of The City of London, Sir Charles Wakefield’s Gold Medal for the destruction of Zeppelin L15, gold, 9ct, hallmarks for Birmingham 1916, the obverse featuring Sir Charles Wakefield’s coat of arms within inscription ‘Presented by the Lord Mayor Colonel Sir Charles Wakefield’, the reverse featuring a gun pointing at ‘L15’, with two scrolls reading ‘Well Hit’ and ‘March 31st - April 1st 1916’, and inscribed with name of recipient ‘Gunr. F. Dargan’, extremely fine £400-£500

These medals were awarded as the result of a bounty of £500 offered by Sir Charles Wakefield to the first gun’s crew to shoot down a Zeppelin on domestic soil. Due to the fact that a number of gun crews were involved in shooting down the L15, it was decided that the money would instead be spent on the production of gold medals to present to each individual member of the crews involved. The L15 was severely damaged by anti-aircraft fire over London on the night of 31 March - 1 April 1916, and plunged into the sea a mile from the Kentish Knock Lightship shortly after midnight - the 17 survivors were taken aboard H.M.S. Vulture, but not before being stripped naked by order of the ship’s Captain.

Frederick Dargan served during the Great War with the Royal Garrison Artillery, and subsequently re-enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps in 1919 for service in Russia.