Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Master F. H. Ponting, Mercantile Marine, who was killed in action when the S.S. Kathleen was sunk by an enemy submarine, 5 August 1917

British War and Mercantile Marine War Medals (Fred H. Ponting.) both in named card boxes of issue, in outer envelope addressed to ‘Mrs. H. Ponting, 3 Purbeck Street, Cardiff’; Memorial Plaque (Fred Hewitt Ponting) in card envelope of issue, in outer envelope similarly addressed, extremely fine (3) £70-£90

Fred Hewitt Ponting served during the Great War as a Master in the Mercantile Marine, and was killed in action on 5 August 1917, when the S.S. Kathleen, 3,915 tons, of the Universal Steam Navigation Company, was attacked and sunk by the enemy submarine U100 90 miles west of Skelligs Rock Lighthouse off the southern Irish coast, whilst on passage from Norfolk, Virginia, to Limerick, carrying a cargo of wheat and maize. Ponting is commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial. His widow, Hermine Ponting, was, until her marriage, a German national, who was born in Hannover in August 1881.

Sold with an emergency Passport issued by the United States of America to the recipient’s wife and children, allowing them to leave Germany and return to Britain, dated 25 August 1914; and copied research.

For the German group of medals attributed to the recipient’s wife’s family, see Lot 820.