Auction Catalogue

30 June 1998

Starting at 12:00 PM

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Orders, Decorations and Medals

The Arts Club  40 Dover St  London  W1S 4NP

Lot

№ 455

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30 June 1998

Hammer Price:
£260

A Great War ‘Jutland Casualty’ group of three to Leading Stoker G. W. H. A. Smith, Royal Navy
1914-15 Star; British War and Victory Medals (K.30288 Act. L. Sto., R.N.); together with Memorial Plaque (George William Harcourt Avondale Smith) all contained within a contemporary oak glazed display frame, nearly extremely fine (3) £130-160

Leading Stoker George William Harcourt Avondale Smith was killed in action whilst serving aboard H.M.S. Black Prince at the Battle of Jutland 31 May 1916.

H.M.S. Black Prince met her fate when she lost touch with the British fleet and turned South in an attempt to rejoin. At about 12:15 a.m. she was still on the same course when she encountered the German High Seas Fleet steaming toward the Horn Reefs. The position of the Black Prince was hopeless from the start, for she was at once the centre of the German searchlights. She was swept from end to end for two or three minutes by salvos from heavy guns. She then caught fire and blew up with the whole of her ship’s company, out of a total of 37 officers, 815 men and 5 civilians there was not one survivor.