Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War ‘Destroyer Commander’s’ D.S.O. group of four awarded to Commander E. P. U. Pender, Royal Navy

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, with integral top riband bar, obverse centre slightly loose; 1914-15 Star (Lieut. E. P. U. Pender. R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Lt. Commr. E. P. U. Pender. R.N.) mounted as worn, minor enamel chipping to first, otherwise good very fine (4) £1,200-£1,600

Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, July 2001.

D.S.O. London Gazette 8 March 1918:
‘For services in Destroyer and Torpedo Boat Flotillas during the period ending 31st December 1917.’

Edward Pender Usticke Pender was in command of H.M.S. Racehorse at the outbreak of the Great War and took part in the bombardment of the German Army’s right wing on the Belgian coast, 18th October, 1914. He commanded H.M.S. Greyhound, on the Dover Patrol, February to October 1915, and Mosquito, in the Eastern Mediterranean, December 1915 to September 1917. During this period he co-operated, with the squadron under Rear-Admiral Fremantle, in the French demonstration against Athens in June 1916, and in the operations in support of a party of some 230 Anatolian irregulars against Turkish positions on the Anatolian coast in September 1916. It was for these operations that probably resulted in the award of his D.S.O.

Pender subsequently commanded the destroyers H.M.S. Nicator (September 1917 to August 1918), Apollo (August 1918 to April 1919), P14 (April 1919 to November 1919), and finally Rosalind. He retired in 1921 with the rank of Commander, and was also awarded the Greek Order of the Redeemer (London Gazette 26 April 1918) and Portuguese Order of Aviz (London Gazette 4 February 1921) for services during the war. He died on 29 December 1936.