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

Three: Able Seaman A. E. French, Royal Navy

1914-15 Star (234666 A.B., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. Oakleaf (2346666 A.B., R.N.) extremely fine (3) £240-280

M.I.D. London Gazette 8.3.1918.

Albert Edward French was born on 8 May 1889 at Faversham in Kent and entered the Royal Navy in 1907. An Able Seaman, he was killed in action, 17 October 1917, aged 28 years, when the destroyer H.M.S. Mary Rose was sunk by the German cruisers Bremse and Brummer in the North Sea. His name is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

On the afternoon of 16 October 1917, the destroyer H.M.S. Mary Rose left Marsten, Norway, with a westbound convoy of12 merchantmen and in the evening was joined by her sister ship, H.M.S. Strongbow. At 6 a.m. the following morning, the Strongbow was suprised by the German minelaying cruisers Bremse and Brummer. The Strongbow was quickly left helpless by a salvo from the German ships, was abandoned and sank about an hour and a half later. The Mary Rose then made contact with the cruisers but she too was quickly put out of action and sank quickly taking most of her complement of 88 officers and crew with her. Of the merchantmen, nine, mostly Scandinavian registered, were sunk. A total of 250 lives were lost in the action. Sold with copied service papers and other copied research.