Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War D.S.M. and Medaille Militaire group of five awarded to Chief Stoker G. Amery, Royal Navy, for services in the Dover Patrol in the latter half of 1916

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (302102. G. Amery. Ch. Sto. H.M.S. Lawford. Dover Patrol. 1916.); British War and Victory Medals (302102. G. Amery. Ch. Sto. R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (302102. George Amery, Ch. Sto. H.M.S. Wallington); France, Third Republic, Medaille Militaire, silver, silver-gilt, and enamel, with trophy of arms suspension, in box of issue, light contact marks, otherwise good very fine (5) £700-£900

D.S.M. London Gazette 23 May 1917:
‘Honours for Services in the Dover Patrol… during the period from 1 July to 31 December 1916’

French Medaille Militaire London Gazette 18 June 1918.

George Amery was born in Islington, London on 4 November 1880. He joined the Royal Navy as a Stoker Second Class on 27 November 1902, serving aboard H.M.S. Duke of Wellington until 31 December 1904. Service on H.M. Ships Fire Queen 2, Good Hope, Terrible, Pembroke, Tenedos, London, Pembroke II and Acteon followed before joining H.M.S. Lawford on 15 April 1914. Amery, by now an Acting Chief Stoker (confirmed May 1916), served during the Great War in H.M.S. Lawford until 31 January 1918, and his service records notes that he was born on the books of H.M.S. Blenheim, Dido, and Wallington during his service with H.M.S. Lawson. Joining H.M.S. Apollo on 2 February 1918, he would serve in this ship until 20 August 1918 and served for the rest of the War at Pembroke II. After a short service in H.M.S. Ganges, and a year in H.M.S. Blake, Amery was invalided out of service on 29 December 1920.

H.M.S. Lawford was a Laforey Class Destroyer launched in 1913 and at the outbreak of the War served with the Third Destroyer Flotilla supporting the First Fleet. She took part in the Battle off Noordhinder Bank on 1 May, 1915, assisting in the sinking of two German coastal destroyers. In April 1916, Lawford transferred to Ninth Destroyer Flotilla and played a belated role in the Battle of Jutland when she was one of eight Harwich destroyers which screened the torpedoed battleship Marlborough on 1 June 1916. Lawford also took part the Battle of Dover Straits, on the night of 26-27 October 1916. In March 1917 she went to the Seventh Destroyer Flotilla operating on the east coast of England and was converted to a minelayer. It seems H.M.S. Apollo, Amery’s ship in 1918, was also a converted minelayer.