Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Great War Q-ship operations D.S.M. group of three awarded to Engineer Lieutenant J. Buchanan, Royal Navy, who was decorated for his services aboard Q.16 (a.k.a. “Heather”) in a classic action off the West Coast of Ireland in March 1917

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (M. 20565 J. Buchanan, C.E.R.A. 2nd Cl., W. Coast Ireland, 14 Mar. 1917); British War and Victory Medals (Eng. Lt., R.N.), good very fine or better (3) £1800-2200

D.S.M. London Gazette 12 May 1917.

The following account of the action in question was written by Lieutenant-Commander W. W. Hallwright, R.N., skipper of the Q. 16:

‘At 12 noon on 14 March, in lat. 52 degrees, 6’ N., long. 12 degrees 34’ W., Q. 16 was steaming East, True, 8.5 knots, flying an American Ensign. A boat’s sail was sighted on the port bow. Course was altered to close sail when another was seen. Speed was increased to 10.5 knots.

At 12.10 p.m. I sighted a submarine on the surface on the starboard beam; five minutes afterwards he opened fire, the first shot passing about 200 yards over the ship. I immediately altered course to bring him astern, ringing to the engine-room to make smoke. His range then was about 7000 yards. After about half a minute a second shot was fired which fell short, direction good. Helm was put hard aport and steadied 4 points off course, the third shot fell on the port quarter about 100 yards. Put helm hard astarboard altering course about 10 points; the fourth shell fell about 100 yards on port quarter. Firing was continued more rapidly until 16 rounds were fired, the sixteenth falling about 10 yards short of our stern. I then burnt a smoke-box in the stokehold and special burning apparatus aft. Submarine ceased to fire and chased, making heavy spray. When she had closed to about 4000 yards I turned our boats, and she re-opened fire at about 2500 yards. At the first shot I hoisted ‘Engines are stopped’, and turned head to sea (a second shot was fired directly after the first; one over, one short), went to “panic stations” and got boats away. Submarine closed to about 1000 yards about two points abaft beam and then turned towards boats which were some distance astern, as I kept going slow ahead to keep head on. H.M.S. Daffodil was well in sight. Submarine then turned round and steamed up to one point abaft the beam and waited with crew on deck and several people on conning-tower. Periscopes down, no masts showing, gun fore and aft.

After about 10 minutes she started diving, and I got guns into action; however, she dipped so quickly that, although the after gunlayer saw the conning-tower, he was unable to fire a round before she dipped. I immediately gave the order ‘Full speed ahead, hard aport’, and shortly afterwards a torpedo passed under our stern.

I proposed to cross her track and drop my depth-charges; however, when I had altered course about 7 points to starboard I saw about 8 feet of periscope (upper part light grey, lower part dark grey the same as the hull) advancing towards me. I steadied the ship on the periscope, which appeared to be advancing at a fair speed. Q. 16 and submarine were now meeting each other end on, and I think he must have been looking at H.M.S. Daffodil as it was quite two minutes before he dipped and then was about 50 yards from him.

I saw his wash just under the starboard bow (i.e. right underneath the flare of the forecastle). I gave him time to get aft, and then dropped two depth-charges in quick succession (about two seconds interval). The first made quite a small explosion, the second a very big one with a lot of black in it.

As soon as the depth-charges had exploded I put the helm hard aport and ran round to the scene of the explosion and saw a cirle of oil of about 50 yards diameter (where charges had exploded); as I approached this another circle appeared about 100 yards away on the line on which the submarine had been running. This rapidly spread until about half a mile of oil was showing. I then recalled my boats, turned around, and stopped engines.

A large quantity of oil in bubbles and long streaks was rising to the surface close alongside the ship (nothing was being pumped from the ship). H.M.S. Daffodil steamed around the area after picking up the two original boats’ crews of survivors. I proceeded on voyage at about 3 p.m.’

A more extensive account of this action is to be found in Lieutenant-Commander Harold Auten’s classic history and memoir, “Q” Boat Adventures, and indeed of another engagement fought by Q. 16 in the following month, in which her skipper, Lieutenant-Commander Hallwright, was killed by a shell-splinter - as a result, Auten became her new captain. But it was around this time, or so it would appear, that Buchanan was transferred to another special service vessel, the Q. 6, also known as the Zylpha, for his name is believed to be among those who survived her loss in June 1917, an incident retold in E. Keble Chatterton’s Q-Ships And Their Story - having been torpedoed, the Q. 6 was taken in tow but, after a journey of 180 miles, finally slipped beneath the waves when just seven miles from port.

Buchanan was subsequently commissioned, and, as evidenced by his original certificate for the Freedom of the City of London, dated 30 January 1931 - which is included in the Lot - rose to be the ‘Engineer and Bridge Master’ for Tower Bridge.