Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part III)

A pair to Bugler E. R. C. H. Wells, Royal Marine Light Infantry, H.M.S. Raglan, killed in action with the Turkish battlecruiser Yavuz (formerly the German Goeben)

British War and Victory Medals (Ch.20986 Bugr., R.M.L.I.) nearly extremely fine (2) £100-140

Edwin Henry Charles Herbert Wells was born in Tooting, London on 12 November 1900. He enlisted into the R..M.L.I. at Chatham on 13 December 1916. As a Bugler he joined the monitor H.M.S. Raglan on 1 December 1917 and was killed in action aboard the ship on 1 January 1918, aged 18 years. He was buried in the Lancashire Landing Cemetery, Turkey. He was the son of Charles Henry and Mary Alice Wells of Azenby Road, Peckham, London.

On the morning of 1 January 1918, the monitor Raglan, of 6150 tons, with a main armament of two 14 inch guns, in company with the monitor M.28, were lying in Kusu Bay in the island of Imbros, when they were attacked by the Turkish battlecruiser Vavuz and light cruiser Midilli (formerly the German Goeben and Breslau) making a sortie from the security of the Dardanelles. After a very brief action both British ships were sunk. Three officers and 119 ratings from the Raglan and three officers and eight ratings from the M.28 were killed. The two Turkish ships then made towards Mudros but whilst under attack from allied aircraft the Midilli struck a mine and sank. Aborting the mission, the Yavuz made towards the Dardanelles only to strike another mine. Listing badly she managed to limp back, running aground at Magara on the S.W. point of the Sea of Marmora. Despite being the target of allied bombers for several days she was eventually towed off by the old battleship Turget Reis. In Constantinople she was repaired. The battlecruiser, which helped propel Turkey into the Great War, was eventually scrapped in 1971. Sold with copied research.