Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Russian Cross of the Order of St. George Third Class awarded to Leading Seaman W. G. Powell, Royal Navy, who was awarded the Russian Cross for his services in H.M. Submarine E9, and was killed in action when H.M. Submarine E18 was lost with all hands in the Baltic Sea in June 1916

Russia, Empire, Cross of the Order of St. George, Third Class, silver, the reverse officially numbered ‘72111’, very fine £800-£1,200

William George Powell was born in Soho, London, on 18 December 1870 and joined the Royal Navy as a Able Seaman on 1 December 1894, by trade a Merchant seaman. Advanced Leading Seaman on 8 September 1898, he was posted to Submarines on 1 April 1914, and served during the Great War initially in H.M. Submarine E9 from 18 June 1914. Under the command of Lieutenant-Commander (later Admiral Sir) Max Horton, E9 torpedoed and and sank the German light cruiser SMS Hela off Heligoland on 13 September 1914, and the German destroyer S116 off the mouth of the River Ems on 6 October 1914; it was after the sinking of the Hela that E9 returned to port flying the Jolly Roger flag, the first submarine to begin this tradition.

Awarded the Russian Cross of the Order of St. George Third Class for his services in E9, Powell later transferred to H.M. Submarine E18, and served in her during operations in the Baltic. Departing Harwich in order to join the Baltic Flotilla on 28 August 1915, under the command of Lieutenant-Commander R. C. Halahan, she operated out of Reval (now Tallinn, Estonia), throughout the autumn of 1915, departing on her first Baltic patrol on 21 September 1915. After a pause over winter, when the Baltic was iced over, E18 departed on her final patrol on 25 May 1916, and was last sighted on 1 June. No further contact with her was received, and it is believed that she struck a mine on her return to Revel. The wreck of the submarine was finally discovered in October 2009; the submarine had its hatch open, suggesting that it did indeed strike a mine whilst sailing on the surface.

All 3 officers and 28 ratings from the E18 were killed. Powell is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial, and his date of death is officially recorded as 11 June 1916, the date that the books on E18 were closed.

Sold with a photographic image of the recipient; and a copy of the bestowal certificate of the Cross of the Order of St. George Third Class, named to ‘W. Powell’, and dated Petrograd 8 July 1915, confirming the numbered award 72111; and a number of contemporary postcards.