Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Royal Fleet Reserve L.S., G.V.R., 2nd issue, coinage bust (309837 (Po. A. 8465) J. P. Smith, S.P.O., R.F.R.) very fine £15-20

John Pembroke Smith was born at Woking, Surrey in September 1884 and entered the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in March 1906. A Stoker Petty Officer by the outbreak of hostilities, he served in H.M.S. Spanker from July 1914 to February 1915, but was sentenced by court-martial in the latter month to be disrated to Stoker 1st Class for ‘disobedience of lawful command’. A little under two months later, he joined the battleship Agincourt, in which ship he served until March 1920, and was present at Jutland. Fawcett and Hooper describe several lucky escapes she had from enemy torpedoes on that memorable day in The Fighting at Jutland:

‘As far as Agincourt was concerned, our excitement started at 7.08 p.m., when with a sharp turn of the ship a torpedo passed just under our stern, and later on another broke surface about 150 yards short on our starboard beam. At 7.35 p.m. the tracks of two more torpedoes were reported approaching on the starboard side, but by good co-operation between the fore-top and the conning tower they were both avoided. Aloft the tracks were clearly visible, and acting on the reports from there the ship was gradually turned away, so that by perfect timing one torpedo passed up the port side and one the starboard side; after which we resumed our place in the line. A fifth torpedo was successfully dodged by zigzagging at 7.47 p.m., but after this we had no further excitements. We ourselves had no opportunity to fire torpedoes at the enemy, but fired 144 shells from our 12-inch turrets and from our secondary armament (6-inch guns) 111 shells.’

Smith ended the War back in his old rate of Stoker Petty Officer and transferred to the Royal Fleet Reserve in March 1928.