Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A scarce Great War Albert Medal for Sea awarded to Donkeyman J. T. Allan, Mercantile Fleet Auxiliary, for gallantry in saving the life of an Able Seaman who had fallen overboard from H.M.S. Renown whilst refuelling at Scapa Flow in June 1918

Albert Medal, 2nd Class, for Gallantry in Saving Life at Sea, bronze and enamel, the reverse officially engraved ‘Presented by His Majesty to John Allan, Donkeyman, R.F.A. “Mixol” in recognition of his gallantry in rescuing a man who was in danger of being crushed between two ships on the 19th June 1918’; British War and Victory Medals (J. Allan. Dkyn. M.F.A.) mounted for wear, good very fine (3) £4,000-£5,000

A.M. London Gazette 20 September 1918:

‘As the R.F.A. Mixol was dropping alongside to fuel one of H.M. Battle Cruisers on 19th June 1918, and Able Seaman slipped and fell overboard between Mixol and the cruiser, Mixol was only about ten feet clear of the cruiser, and was closing at the time. Donkeyman John Allan, who was standing at the fore well-deck of Mixol saw the man and that he was struggling in the water. Although it was clear that the man in the water was in imminent danger of being crushed between the two ships, Allan at once jumped overboard in the clothes he was wearing to save him. He assisted the Able Seaman to keep afloat until a rope was thrown, which he gave to him, the Able Seaman being hauled on board before Allan took the rope himself. The ship was in an open anchorage and the temperature of the water 50 degrees.’

John Thomas Allan was born in 1891 at South Shields, County Durham, the son of John Allan, a blacksmith, and his wife Lillian. His grandfather had been a master mariner. On 18 October 1918, Allan enlisted for service as a donkeyman in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary oiler Mixol, an Admiralty-designed harbour tanker of 2,000 tons, launched in June 1916 and completed in October 1916, when Allan joined her.

On 19 June 1918, Mixol was coming alongside H.M.S. Renown, a battle cruiser of 26,000 tons, part of the Grand Fleet deployed at Scapa Flow. The sailor he rescued was Thomas W. Johnson, a twenty-one year old Able Seaman (J.28832) from Malton, Yorkshire. It must have been a dramatic spectacle as crew members from both ships lined the sides to view the rescue. Allan was subsequently awarded the Albert Medal for Gallantry in Saving Life at Sea, one of only two such awards ever made to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (the second was a posthumous award in 1951).

Allan was discharged in August 1919 to Eaglet, the base at Liverpool, for demobilisation. He returned to South Shields where he died on 29 December 1936, at the relatively early age of 46, and now rests in an unmarked grave in Horton Cemetery, South Shields.