Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War C.M.G. group of seven awarded to Captain D. G. Thynne, Royal Navy, who was Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the Russian Order of St. Stanislas for his services aboard H.M.S. Agincourt at the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916

The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; 1914-15 Star (Commr. D. G. Thynne, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Capt. D. G. Thynne. R.N.); Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Russia, Empire, Order of St. Stanislas, Second Class neck badge, with swords, by Eduard, St. Petersburg, gold (56 zolotniki) and enamel, maker’s mark to reverse, minor enamel damage to central medallions on CMG, and to wreath on last, otherwise generally good very fine (7) £2,400-£2,800

Commander Ron Campion Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, September 2002.

C.M.G. London Gazette 24 March 1919:
‘For valuable services in command of a minelayer for eighteen months. Many of the operations were carried out in dangerous enemy waters.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 15 September 1916:
‘For service in the Battle of Jutland.’

Russian Order of Stanislas, Second Class (with Swords) London Gazette 5 June 1917:
‘For distinguished service rendered in the Battle of Jutland.’

Denis Granville Thynne was born in October 1875, the son of the Rev. A. C. Thynne of Kilkhampton, and a scion of the Marquessates of Bath. He entered the Royal Navy as a Cadet in January 1890 and was appointed a Midshipman in June 1892 and a Lieutenant in September 1898. Gaining his first seagoing experience on cruisers, he was given his first command, a torpedo boat destroyer, in 1905. In 1910, while serving in the cruiser H.M.S. Kent on the China Station, he gained advancement to Commander, afterwards returning home for a stint of service on the royal yacht Victoria and Albert.

The outbreak of hostilities in August 1914 found Thynne aboard H.M.S. Agincourt, in which battleship he was Mentioned in Despatches for his services at Jutland, and was awarded the Russian Order of Stanislas. As a Senior Executive Officer, he must have been directly involved in shaping Agincourt’s part in the battle, and possibly even ordered the despatch of her first salvo at 10,000 yards range against an enemy battle cruiser in the early evening hours of the 31 May - ‘The pleasure it was to see H.M.S. Agincourt ... as she poured out salvoes from her broadside of fourteen 12-inch guns,’ noted a young Midshipman in H.M.S. Malaya. By the end of the battle, Agincourt had engaged the enemy on four occasions, expended 144 shells from her 12-inch guns and another 111 from her 6-inch guns, and obtained a series of hits on at least one enemy battleship of the Kaiser class. But the traffic was far from one-sided, a series of enemy torpedo strikes causing the mighty battleship to take rapid evasive action:
‘Soon after this the Division had a busy time dodging torpedoes, fired apparently from enemy destroyers, or possibly from the battleships themselves. Luckily the tracks could be spotted from the tops in time. 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 another one broke surface about 150 yards short of 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 at 7.47 p.m., but after this we had no further excitements.’

Further recognition was to follow for Thynne when he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George for his services in the minelayer H.M.S. Wahine, which he had joined in March 1917. Following the cessation of hostilities he briefly commanded the depot ship H.M.S. Woolwich before being placed on the Retired List in the rank of Captain in 1922. Settling in Cornwall, he was re-employed as a Temporary Lieutenant (unpaid) in the “Wavy Navy” during the Second World War. He died in December 1955.