Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Six: Commander J. H. C. Minter, Royal Navy

1914-15 Star (Lieut., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut., R.N.); Defence and War Medals, both privately inscribed, ‘Comdr. J. H. C. Minter, R.N.’; Jubilee 1935, this last privately inscribed ‘Lieut. Comdr. J. H. C. Minter, R.N.’, together with a set of related miniature dress medals, the British War Medal 1914-20 with 7 clasps, including “Red Sea”, “Mediterranean 1914” and “Jutland 31 May 16”, both sets mounted as worn, generally very fine and better (12) £180-220

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals for Services at Sea from the Collection of the Late Oliver Stirling Lee.

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John Henry Christian Minter, who was appointed a Midshipman in the Royal Navy in January 1909, was serving aboard the cruiser H.M.S. Duke of Edinburgh as a Lieutenant by the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914. Removing to the Royal Oak in April 1916, he was present at the Battle of Jutland, when his ship acted as flagship of the 4th Battle Squadron, and remained similarly employed until the end of the War.

Having next attended an advanced W./T. course at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, Minter was promoted to Lieutenant-Commander in February 1922, and, in August 1926, joined the Warspite as Fleet W./T. Officer to Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, C.-in-C. Mediterranean - his Assistant Fleet W./T. Officer was none other than Lieutenant Lord Louis Mountbatten.

Minter was placed on the Retired List as a Commander in May 1936, but returned to uniform in the 1939-45 War when he acted as C.O. of the Harwich base ship Badger. Here, no doubt, in addition to assisting the mineweeper crews who operated out of the same base, he was able to occasionally entertain an officer or two from the 4th M.T.B. Flotilla.