Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Surgeon Lieutenant J. S. Crone, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, who was killed in action when H.M. Submarine Sterlet was lost with all hands in the Skaggerak in April 1940

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939-45; Memorial Scroll ‘Surgeon Lieutenant J. S. Crone Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve’, scroll with some rusty drawing pin marks to corners, otherwise extremely fine (3) £120-£160

John Smyth Crone was born on 8 July 1915 and was educated at Forest School, Essex, before undertaking his medical training at Guy’s Hospital, London. He served during the Second World War in H.M. Submarine Sterlet, and departed Harwich in her to conduct a war patrol in the Skagerrak between Norway, Sweden, and Denmark on 8 April 1940. On 12 April she unsuccessfully attacked a German convoy, and on 15 April she torpedoed and sank the German gunnery training ship Brummer south of Larvik.

On 18 April 1940 Sterlet was depth charged by the German anti-submarine trawlers UJ-125, UJ-126, and UJ-128. Whether she was destroyed in this attack, or was later lost to a mine, is unknown, but the submarine was never seen or heard from again, and Crone’s death, along with the rest of the crew, was officially recorded as 27 April 1940, the date of Sterlet‘s scheduled return. He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial and on a memorial at Guy’s Hospital.

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