Orders, Decorations and Medals

Four: Lieutenant A. Lefevre, Royal Navy, who served on the aircraft carrier H.M.S. Riviera 1915-17

1914-15 Star (Lieut., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut., R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., V.R., narrow suspension (P.O. 1st Cl., H.M.S. Conquest), this last with one or two edge bruises, otherwise generally good very fine (4) £400-500

Alfred Lefevre, who was born in Exeter in 1857, entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in April 1871. Having gained advancement to Petty Officer 1st Class by August 1884, he went on to serve in H.M.S. Conquest off the East Coast of Africa 1890-92, in which period members of the ship’s company were landed for service in the Witu operations of 1890 - it was during this same commission, in May 1891, that Lefevre was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal. Moreover, in June 1892, he was commissioned as a Gunner, R.N.

By the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he was serving as a Chief Gunner (T.) in the Eclipse, part of the 12th Cruiser Squadron under Rear-Admiral Wemyss in the Dover Patrol - Eclipse captured German merchantmen on 10 August and 10 September 1914. Then in May 1915, Lefevre was appointed second-in-command of the aircraft carrier Riviera, in which capacity he served until the Spring of 1918, a period that witnessed him celebrating his 60th birthday - and the following seaplane operations:

4 July 1915: Positioned off the Island of Ameland, Riviera sent a Short seaplane to the Ems river, where it bombed a flotilla of enemy torpedo boats.

7 September 1915: Riviera provided seaplanes for observing a shore bombardment at Ostend by Admiral Bacon’s force.

26 January 1916: Riviera provided spotting aircraft, using wireless, for the bombardment of German positions near Westende.

20 March 1916: Riviera provided seaplanes for the large scale bombing attack on the German seaplane base at Houtlave.

24 September 1916: Riviera supported H.M.S. Terror in a bombardment of Zeebrugge.

In July 1917, the Riviera was withdrawn from the Dover-Dunkirk theatre of operations and lent her support to air operations in the Western Approaches of the Channel. Departing that ship in the Spring of 1918, Lefevre’s final wartime appointment was in the submarine depot ship Pactolus.