Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Baronet’s Badge, of England, neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, hallmarks for London 1931, the reverse officially engraved, ‘Twysden of East Peckham, 29th June 1611’, good very fine £600-800

This badge relates to Commander Sir Roger Twysden, R.N., the 10th Baronet, who was born in February 1894. Entering the Royal Navy as a cadet in January 1907, he was appointed Midshipman in September 1911 and advanced to Sub Lieutenant in January 1914.

Soon after the outbreak of hostilities, he joined H.M.S. Emperor of India, in which battleship he served until removing to destroyer Lizard in October 1915 and thence, in late May 1916, to the destroyer Petard. He was subsequently present at the Battle of Jutland a few days later, when the Petard was credited with sinking the enemy destroyer V-27 and gaining a torpedo hit on the Seydlitz. She also stopped to offer assistance to the badly mauled Nestor - whose C.O. Commander Barry Bingham was awarded a V.C. - and picked up 19 survivors from the Queen Mary. Finally, in the subsequent night action, she closed to within 600 yards of the German battleships and was caught in their searchlights, and was hit several times at point-blank range, the first such salvo wiping out her 4-inch gun and crew and wrecking the after cabins and killing her surgeon. Petard’s captain, Lieutenant-Commander E. C. O. Thomson, was awarded the D.S.O., and Twysden, who took over as his No. 1 when Lieutenant C. A. Sperling was killed, was cited for his ‘very creditable behaviour’: his subsequent promotion to Lieutenant was back-dated to 15 May 1916.

Removing to another destroyer, the Murray, in June 1917, and thence to the Termagant in November 1917, he lasted but two months in the latter following the arrival of a new captain, Commander A. B. Cunningham (better known as “ABC” and an Admiral of the Fleet to the 1939-45 War vintage). In September 1918, however, he was given his first command, the P-53, in which capacity he remained employed until the end of the War, but further active service was to follow in the cruiser Phaeton, aboard which ship he served in the Baltic against the Bolsheviks in early 1919, and in the Revenge in 1920, when the latter was employed on shore bombardment duties in the war between Turkey and Greece.

Twysden was placed on the Retired List in 1922 and was advanced to Commander on the same in February 1934.