Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Wireman First Class F. H. Allum, H.M.S. Calliope, Royal Navy

1914-15 Star (M.12389. F. H. Allum, Ar. Cr., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (M.12389. F. H. Allum. Wmn.1 R.N.) good very fine (3) £100-£140

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals for the Battle of Jutland.

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Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, December 2012.

The light cruiser H.M.S. Calliope was launched on 17 December 1914 and was part of the 4th Light Cruiser Squadron at the Battle of Jutland, where she received a number of hits before nightfall, and ten of her crew were killed.

Frederick Henry Allum was born in Reading, Berkshire, on 5 July 1884 and joined the Royal Navy as Armourer’s Crew on 15 March 1915. He served during the Great War in H.M.S. Calliope from 4 May 1915 to the end of the War, and was advanced Wireman First Class on 1 March 1916.

Under the direct command of Commodore Le Mesurier, the Calliope acted as the flagship of the 4th Light Cruiser Squadron at Jutland and was heavily engaged throughout the battle. But it was not until the evening that she started to take her first casualties, the result of a duel with two Kaiser class battleships. The Fighting at Jutland takes up the story:
‘ ... only our speed and zigzagging saved us from annihilation. As it was, we seemed to be in the middle of splashes, and the noise of the bursting shell and flying fragments was absolutely deafening. We were hit five times in all, three of which did serious damage to personnel. One shell, bursting against the breech of the port after 4-inch gun, smashed the fittings and gun shield and killed practically all the gun’s crew, the notable exception being the sight-setter, a Corporal of Marines, who had the gun between him and the burst and only suffered a slight scalp wound.
The second hit on us burst near No. 3 4-inch gun under the bridge, disabled the gun, killing and wounding some of the crew, and fragments of this shell penetrated the deck of the lower bridge and wounded a signalman and a bugler.
The third shell penetrated the upper deck, and burst in the boys’ mess deck, almost in the middle of the after dressing station, killing some and wounding many others, including the Staff Surgeon.
For the last five minutes that we were under fire we were in sight of our own ships, although the two battle fleets were invisible to each other, and we were told afterwards that at times we were hidden in spray from the splashes. Altogether, we had 10 killed and 23 wounded, some seriously. We were ordered to take station on the port beam of the battle fleet for the night, and in the morning resumed our cruising station ahead during the search for disabled enemy ships.
On reaching Scapa afterwards, we were ordered in first, instead of waiting for the battle fleet to enter, to land our wounded. Our dead we buried at sea the morning after the action, the Commodore leaving the bridge for a few minutes to read the burial service, the one time he was ever known to leave the bridge at sea.’H

Allum was shore demobilised on 8 March 1919.