Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A good Second World War B.E.M. awarded to Chief Steward A. W. Wiltshire, Merchant Navy, who survived several days in an open boat following the loss of the Houlder Brothers’ ship Beacon Grange to torpedo attack in the North Atlantic in April 1941 - he was 59 years of age at the time of being recommended for his award

British Empire Medal, (Civil) G.VI.R., 1st issue (Arthur William Wiltshire), with original wearing pin, nearly extremely fine £250-300

B.E.M. London Gazette 4 June 1943. The original recommendation states:

‘For long service in dangerous waters. He was serving in the S.S. Beacon Grange when she was torpedoed in April 1941 and acquitted himself well.’

Arthur William Wiltshire, who was born at Southampton in 1883, appears to have entered the Mercantile Marine in the Edwardian era, and certainly served in the Great War - having lost his original Mercantile Marine and British War Medals aboard the Beacon Grange, he was issued with replacements in June 1943.

The exact date he joined the ship’s company of Houlder Brothers’ Empire Grange remains uncertain, but it is not without interest that prior to her sinking in April 1941, she had already sustained severe damage as a result of two bomb hits received off the coast of Scotland in August 1940 (a full account of this incident appears in the Houlders’ history Sea Hazard 1939-45). As verified by Wiltshire’s recommendation for his subsequent award of the B.E.M., however, he was very much aboard her when she was torpedoed and sunk in the North Atlantic by the U-552 on 27 April 1941:

‘The liner Beacon Grange, Captain A. B. Friend, left Loch Ewe on the north-west coast of Scotland on 26 April 1941. At about 2.20 on the following morning she was attacked by enemy aircraft which presumably radioed her position to a submarine as she was intercepted at 2.30 on the following afternoon (the 27th) and hit with three torpedoes. The submarine then surfaced at a distance of approximately 500 yards and members of her crew took photographs. Meanwhile those on board the liner went to the boats as she was sinking rapidly. The Beacon Grange was finally sunk by gunfire.

Two boats got away. The captain’s, containing 41 all told, was picked up by the British corvette Gladiolus two days later. The second boat with the First Officer and 38 others was picked up six days later by the Belgian steam trawler Edward Anseele. Two engineers were killed by the explosion of the torpedoes and several men were wounded, but there were no fatalities during the time that the boats were adrift (A Dictionary of Disasters at Sea refers).

At the time of submitting his official report into the sinking (‘I was blown from my chair into the corner of the chart room ...’; accompanying copy refers), Captain A. B. Friend recommended several crew members for their good work in his boat, but was not then aware of the fate of the First Officer’s boat. Wiltshire is not among those listed by Friend, so we must assume he ‘acquitted himself well’ in the latter boat.

The captain of the U-552 was Erich Topp, who was awarded the Knight’s Cross for his services in the first half of 1941, and who added Oak Leaves and Swords to his decoration in the following year.

Wiltshire, who was 59 years of age when recommended for his B.E.M., next joined the El Argentino, and was lucky to avoid a second sinking when she was sent to the bottom of the North Atalantic by enemy aircraft on 26 July 1943, having come ashore from her for leave earlier that month. His final wartime commission was aboard the Rippingham Grange from September 1943 until the end of hostilities, with the exception of a brace of voyages in the Cardesa between April and June 1944. Additionally entitled to the 1939-45 & Atlantic Star, and the War Medal 1939-45, he retired in August 1949.