Orders, Decorations and Medals

Chief Petty Officer E. H. Pitcher, V.C., Royal Navy

Mediterranean Fleet Regata Medal 1926, obv. shield of H.M.S. Barham, rev.inscribed, ‘First Seamen’s Cutter 2 m. E. Pitcher, V.C., Cox’, 33mm., silver, hallmarks for Birmingham 1926, good very fine £200-300

V.C. London Gazette 2 November 1917 ‘The King has been graciously pleased to approve of the following Honours, Decorations and Medals for services in action with enemy submarines’ (Action of H.M.S. Dunraven on 8 August 1917. The Victoria Cross awarded to Lieutenant C. G. Bonner and Petty Officer Ernest Pitcher).

D.S.M. London Gazette 20 July 1917 ‘for services in action with enemy submarines’ (Action of H.M.S. Pargust on 7 June 1917. The Victoria Cross awarded to Lieutenant R.N. Stuart and Seaman William Williams).

M.I.D. London Gazette 23 March 1917 (Action of H.M.S. Q.5 on 17 February 1917. The Victoria Cross awarded to Commander Gordon Campbell).

Chief Petty Officer Ernest Herbert Pitcher, V.C., D.S.M., was born in Mullion, Cornwall on 31 December 1888. He entered the Royal Navy on 22 July 1903 and with the onset of war was serving on the dreadnaught battleship King George V, transferring to ‘Q’ Ships in the following year. He was awarded the V.C. for an action with an enemy submarine in 1917. The Register of the Victoria Cross states: ‘On 8 August 1917 in the Bay of Biscay, Petty Officer Pitcher was the 4-inch gunlayer on H.M.S. Dunraven (one of the ‘Q’ or mystery ships) when she was shelled by an enemy submarine. He and the rest of the crew waited while the battle went on overhead and all around them. When the magazine below them caught fire they took up cartridges and held them on their knees to prevent the heat of the deck igniting them and when the magazine finally blew up they were all blown into the air’. The V.C. was a balloted award. Pitcher later served in the Second World War; he died of tuberculosis on 10 February 1946.