Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria. To coincide with the OMRS Convention

Three: Stoker Petty Officer F. Long, Royal Navy

1914-15 Star (301101 S.P.O., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (301101 S.P.O., R.N.) good very fine (3) £40-50

Frederick Long was born in Dover in May 1883 and joined the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in July 1902. On the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he was mobilised from the Royal Fleet Reserve and joined H.M.S. Euryalus as a Stoker Petty Officer, an appointment that would see him employed in the Dardanelles throughout most of 1915, when Rear-Admiral Wester-Wemyss, S.N.O., flew his flag aboard her.

As a consequence, the Euryalus was closely involved in the Gallipoli landings, and in addition to carrying out many valuable bombardments, she transported the men of the Lancashire Fusiliers, shortly to win “Six V.Cs before breakfast”, prior to their embarkation on smaller craft for the final dash to ‘W’ Beach. Of the 950 Officers and men who disembarked from the Euryalus, 533 were killed or wounded, a sight not lost on Wester-Wemyss, who witnessed the whole sorry affair from his vantage point on Euryalus’ bridge, close to the beaches.

Long came ashore from the Euryalus to Pembroke II in August 1917, and was serving at the Sheerness establishment Wildfire at the end of hostilities. Tragically, he died of tuberculosis in the following year.