An Excessively Rare & Highly Important
“BATTLE of JUTLAND”
1916
CONSPICUOUS GALLANTRY MEDAL
1914-15 Trio
& Long Service Good Conduct Medal
with
French Medaille Militaire.
To:
E.R.A. 2Cl F.T. BIRCHALL.
H.M.S. ONSLAUGHT.

The Conspicuous Gallantry Medal is by far the rarest of all British gallantry awards. There has only been a small total of 356 awards made since its inception by Queen Victoria in 1856.

Only 110 medals were awarded during the reign of George V mainly for Royal Naval service in The Great War.

[THE MEDALS] (officially impressed)
Conspicuous Gallantry Medal
(L.G. 15th September 1916)
271185. F.T. BIRCHALL, C.E.R.A. 2CL.
H.M.S. ONSLAUGHT.
31.MAY,-1.JUNE.1916.

1914-15 Star
271185 F.T. BIRCHALL. E.R.A. 1. R.N.


War & Victory Medals.
271185. F.T. BIRCHALL. C.E.R.A. 2. R.N.

Long Service Good Conduct Medal (GV) Royal Navy.
271185. F.T. BIRCHALL, C.E.R.A. 2.CL. H.M.S. WOOLWICH.

France: Medaille Militaire
(unnamed as issued)
L.G. 17th March 1919.

[CITATION] L.G. 15th September 1916.
Chief Engineer Room Artificer, 2Cl, Frederick Tinsley Birchall. 271185.
”Chief Engine Room Artificer, 2nd Class, Birchall showed great coolness and resource on removing portions of shafting from forward to enable the after steering position to be successfully operated. His work was carried out under a heavy fire and he displayed a dexterity and calmness which did him the highest credit”

[NOTE]
Fred Burchall’s citation is printed in the London gazette directly below the Victoria Cross citation for the late “Boy 1st Class John Travers Cornwell, V.C. who as a 16 year old gunner aboard HMS Chester, during the Battle of Jutland, famously stood alone by his gun, mortally wounded, still on duty and awaiting orders when all others lay dead around him.

[BACKGROUND]
During the Battle of Jutland, HMS Onslaught had taken part in a torpedo attack on German battleships, in which the enemy ship Pommern had been sunk. Whilst turning away, and being the last ship in the line, she was heavily shelled and very critically hit by a single enemy shell.

Sub-Lieutenant Harry Kemmis senior surviving officer wrote:

"A Shell burst against the port side of the chart house and forebridge igniting a box of cordite, causing a fire, destroying nearly all navigational instruments.

At the time there were on the forebridge: the captain, first lieutenant, torpedo coxswain, two quartermasters and both signalmen, and the gunner on his way up the ladder. I had just been sent down to tell the engine room our movements, and had only got to the bottom of the ladder from the forecastle deck to the upper deck.

I went to the bridge and finding everything wrecked, the captain mortally wounded and first lieutenant killed, I assumed command and gave orders for the aft steering position to be connected, which was done very smartly"
(Done by Fred Birchall) .

( *For effecting this aft steering connection deep inside the ship under heavy enemy fire C.E.R.A. BIRCHALL won this Conspicuous Gallantry Medal. )

Sub-Lieutenant Harry Kemmis then took his ship and surviving crew home to Rosyth in Scotland.

[SUMMARY]
This exceptional group is practically “mint state” and has quite obviously only ever been worn by the clearly humble recipient just once or twice. The medals have never been cleaned with the four silver medals now exhibiting a lovely time developed natural patina over original prooflike surfaces, with the 1914-15 Star still retaining all its original and untouched red mint lustre. As such, and in this pristine level of preservation, the group is most definitely one of, if not the finest surviving example of only 110 such medal groups for The Great War.

A Magnificent & Historically Important Group, won during one of the most famous sea battles in human history.

The Battle of Jutland marked the first time in the then 111 years since the Battle of Trafalgar that a foreign power had ever dared to shoot at the Royal Navy!









If you collect only the very best, this is for you and is perhaps a once in a lifetime opportunity to add a C.G.M. group to your collection

PRICE ON REQUEST.

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01342-870960

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