Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Royal Navy L.S. & G.C. Medal awarded to Petty Officer 1st Class L. J. Hofgartner, Royal Navy, who was awarded the D.S.M. for his gallant deeds in action with enemy submarines in the Atlantic Ocean on 30 July 1917 while serving in the hired trawler ‘Hunter’

Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (178122. L. J. Hofgartner, P.O. 1 Cl. H.M.S. Hindustan.) very fine £100-£140

D.S.M. London Gazette 2 November 1917:
‘For services in action with enemy submarines.’

The Admiralty medal roll confirms that Petty Officer Hofgartner was decorated for an action in the Atlantic Ocean on 30 July 1917 whilst serving in the anti-submarine boom defence vessel H.M.T. 90, also known as ‘Hunter’.

Lorenz John Hofgartner was born on 13 October 1878 in Finsbury, London, the son of a German father and a French mother. He joined the Royal Navy on 13 October 1896 and between this time and 1907 he served on a large number of ships. Serving in the pre-dreadnought battleship Hindustan from November 1907 to April 1912, he gained the rank of Petty Officer 1st Class on 21 July 1910 and received the Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal on 16 October 1911. From April 1912 to February 1913 he was stationed at H.M.S. Vernon, the Royal Navy’s Torpedo Branch, where extensive research and development was carried out to develop anti-submarine devices, and he is noted as being aboard the cruiser Minerva, February 1913 until May 1913.

Hofgartner served in H.M.S. Excellent (Portsmouth Gunnery School) from 1 June 1913 until 21 October 1913 when he was transferred back to Vernon and then on 1 February 1914 to the scout cruiser H.M.S. Attentive, serving as part of the 6th Destroyer Flotilla on the Dover Patrol until 22 December 1914. He was then transferred to H.M.S. Victory I, the accounting and holding Barracks at Portsmouth, remaining there until March 1915 when he joined the sloop H.M.S. Cormorant for one week. On 10 April 1915 he joined H.M.T. 90, also known as Hunter, remaining with her until 23 May 1918. Hunter was a hired trawler, Admiralty Number 90, built in 1903. She was in service throughout the war firstly as a minesweeper and then from September 1915 as an anti-submarine boom defence vessel. As stated previously, Hofgartner was awarded the D.S.M. for gallantry against enemy submarines while serving in her on 30 July 1917 in the Atlantic Ocean. He returned to Vernon on 24 May 1918 where he was promoted Acting Chief Petty Officer on 1 August 1918 and also served in the depot ship H.M.S. Woolwich and at the shore establishment Victory X in 1919. Hofgartner’s final seagoing appointment was aboard the cruiser H.M.S. Dido on 29 April 1919. He was demobilized in September 1919 and discharged to pension in July 1920.