Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare Great War submariner casualty’s D.S.M. pair awarded to Petty Officer C. E. Ellis, Royal Navy, who perished in the North Sea when the E 34 strayed into a minefield on 20 July 1918: two months earlier, the E 34 had torpedoed the UB-16 while returning from a minelaying mission off Harwich

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (220405 C. E. Ellis, P.O., H.M. Submarines, Aug.-Dec. 1917); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (220405 G. E. Ellis, P.O., H.M.S. Maidstone), extremely fine (2) £2500-3000

D.S.M. London Gazette 17 April 1918:

‘In recognition of their services in submarines.’

Charles Edward Ellis was born in Dover, Kent in December 1884 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in March 1902. Advanced to Able Seaman in November 1904, he transferred to the submarine branch on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, when he joined the C 5, but it was for his subsequent services in the E 34 from April 1917, latterly as a Petty Officer, that he was awarded his D.S.M.

As confirmed in various published sources, the latter submarine most probably strayed into a minefield off Vlieland during the course of her twenty-fourth minelaying mission in July 1918 - all hands were lost but the body of her captain, Lieutenant R. I. Pulleyne, D.S.O., D.S.C., R.N., was later washed ashore on one of the West Frisian Islands. He had been awarded the D.S.O. following a rare Great War “Sub-on-Sub” action on 10 May 1918, an incident witnessed, of course, by Petty Officer Ellis:

‘E 34 (Lieutenant Pulleyne) was on her way back to harbour when she sank UB-16. Pulleyne sighted a submarine in waters which might have led him to believe that she was British. He was, however, taking no chances, and dived immediately to the attack. Through his periscope he established her nationality beyond question, and then hit her with two torpedoes, sinking her at once ... The best look-out and the widest awake is the submariner who lives longest’ (We Dive at Dawn, by Lieutenant-Commander K. Edwards, refers).