Auction Catalogue

2 April 2004

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

Lot

№ 892

.

2 April 2004

Hammer Price:
£75

Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 2nd issue, fixed suspension (364373 C. J. Whiffin, Ch. Sto., H.M.S. Lowestoft) about very fine £20-30

Charles James Whiffin was born at Sevenoaks, Kent in August 1887 and entered the Royal Navy as a Domestic 3rd Class in January 1906. By the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he had been advanced to Stoker Petty Officer and was serving aboard the cruiser Forward, but in October 1915 Whiffin removed to the monitor General Wolfe, in which vessel he served in the Dover Patrol for the remainder of the War.

No finer tribute to the work of the Monitors can be found than that written by Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon in his 2-volume history
The Dover Patrol 1915-17, in which he describes how they served ‘day and day about in patrolling the coast’ and how they regularly bombarded Zeebrugge and Ostend, in addition to providing protection against enemy Zeppelins en route to bomb targets in the south of England. For her own part, the General Wolfe was one of three monitors fitted with 18-inch guns, a modification that enabled her to engage enemy targets and a range of 23 miles! As Keble Chatterton concludes, the monitors ‘were splendidly handled and were absolutely invaluable’ and their crews deserved ‘far more recognition than ever fell to them for their services during the war.’

Awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in April 1922, when serving in the cruiser
Lowestoft, Whiffin was advanced to Chief Stoker in July 1925. He was pensioned ashore in January 1928, but re-entered the Service in December 1935 as a Stoker I (Pens.), aged 45 years.