Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War D.S.C. group of four awarded to Lieutenant-Commander A. H. L. Terry, Royal Navy

Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R., the reverse hallmarked London 1918; 1914-15 Star (Lieut., R.N.); British War & Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Lieut., R.N.) mounted as worn, extremely fine (4) £600-800

D.S.C. London Gazette 24 March 1919: ‘For minelaying operations between 1 July and 11 November 1918.’

His D.S.C. recommendation, by Vice-Admiral East Coast of England, states: ‘Continuous good service in Command of H.M.S. Ferret of 20th Flotilla and also H.M.S. Prince. Took part in practically all minelaying operations carried out by the Flotilla and showed great zeal on all occasions of trying conditions of weather in remaining with the rest of the Flotilla although his ship was far smaller than the remainder.’

On 28 March 1918, there was one of those patrol incidents which was typical of the kind of guerilla warfare which went on daily at this time. In the course of a sweep of the Heligoland Bight, the 20th Flotilla of British destroyers captured and sank three German armed outpost trawlers. Three officers and 69 men, the entire crews of the enemy vessels, were made prisoners, and there were no casualties on our side. This capture was made in a sweep at night, during misty weather, and in a heavy sea. The enemy were completely surprised, being discovered lying at anchor in line. The British commander detailed two of his destroyers to board each of the trawlers, which proved a matter of considerable difficulty in view of the nature of the sea. As the British destroyers approached the centre trawler the latter’s commander and crew abandoned their vessel, which blew up immediately afterwards as the result of explosion of bombs on board. The two other trawlers surrendered without resistance. It was decided to sink the captured vessels, one being blown up by a demolition charge, and the other sunk with a few rounds of shot. The German prisoners seemed exceedingly pleased at being captured, one of them remarking that he expected to get some real food when he reached England.

A Prize Court action which arose out of this scrap was heard on 30 July, 1918, when it was shown that the British destroyers engaged were the Abdiel, Legion, Telemachus, Vanquisher, Ariel, and Ferret, under the command of Captain Berwick Curtis, D.S.O., of the Abdiel. Captain Curtis stated in an affidavit that the German vessels, the Scharbeutz, Mars, and Polarstern, were each armed with a gun and further equipped with bombs, depth charges, and searchlights.

Lieutenant Terry, who had won the Ryder Memorial Prize, was in command of Ferret from 2 October 1917, and Prince from 24 September 1918. After serving in Iron Duke from March 1914, he also commanded H.M. P-52 from 14 December 1916; H.M.S. Stour from 13 July 1915, and H.M.S. Nasturtium from February 1916 until she was mined and sank on 27 April 1916 when minesweeping in the Mediterranean. After the war he was in Southampton, 1919-21, and returned to Iron Duke, 1922-23, as Interpreter and Intelligence Officer on the Staff of C-in-C Mediterranean. Terry retired as Lieutenant-Commander in 1926, and died on 30 March 1929. See also Lot 1052 for related family medals.