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Remembered Today:

Petty Officer Nash awarded Croix de Guerre


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I am doing research on British Pathe news clips from the early 20th century.

This clip http://www.britishpa...rd.php?id=75904 shows a Petty Officer Nash being presented with the Croix de Guerre by Adm Sir Henry Jackson.

I doubt that there were many instances of British naval ratings receiving the Croix de Guerre? Can anyone help me with some background to Petty Officer Nash and the reason for his award?

Thanks

Tony

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I doubt that there were many instances of British naval ratings receiving the Croix de Guerre?

These pages from the Naval History Net may be of interest

http://www.naval-history.net/WW1NavyBritishLGDecorations1915Foreign.htm

http://www.naval-history.net/WW1NavyBritishLGDecorations1918Foreign.htm

but I regret that I can no trace of your PO Nash

Good luck

Michael

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Tony.

From The Times, Wed, 28 Mar 1917, p.9

ARRANGEMENTS FOR TO-DAY

..

Admiral Sir Henry Jackson presents Croix de Guerre to Petty Officer

Frederick Nash, R.N., Dreadnought Hospital, Greenwich, 3.30.

..

I did some searches of Gazettes Online but couldn't locate the announcement of the Croix de Guerre for a Petty Officer Frederick Nash. Others may have better luck. Perhaps he was convalescing at the Dreadnought hospital following being wounded in the action for which he received the award.

I did find an earlier award, a DSM in 1915, to a Petty Officer Frederick Nash. Could be the same person.

Gazette Issue 29264 published on the 13 August 1915, page 8135.

http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/29264/supplements/8135

Distinguished Service Medal

For services on 18th March:-

Petty Officer, 1st Class, Thomas W. Kemp, O.N. 171663.

Petty Officer, 1st Class, Frederick Nash, O.N. 181003.

Signalman Isaac Overton, O.N. 225837.

Able Seaman Charles R. Hooper, O.N. J.5912.

Here's the above mentioned man's service record:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=7379439

Name: Nash, Frederick

Official Number: 181003

Place of Birth: Loose, Kent

Date of Birth: 03 June 1879

Catalogue ref: ADM 188/301

regards,

Martin

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I did some searches of Gazettes Online but couldn't locate the announcement of the Croix de Guerre for a Petty Officer Frederick Nash. Others may have better luck. Perhaps he was convalescing at the Dreadnought hospital following being wounded in the action for which he received the award.

I did find an earlier award, a DSM in 1915, to a Petty Officer Frederick Nash. Could be the same person.

Gazette Issue 29264 published on the 13 August 1915, page 8135.

http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/29264/supplements/8135

Distinguished Service Medal

For services on 18th March:-

Petty Officer, 1st Class, Thomas W. Kemp, O.N. 171663.

Petty Officer, 1st Class, Frederick Nash, O.N. 181003.

Signalman Isaac Overton, O.N. 225837.

Able Seaman Charles R. Hooper, O.N. J.5912.

Here's the above mentioned man's service record:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=7379439

Name: Nash, Frederick

Official Number: 181003

Place of Birth: Loose, Kent

Date of Birth: 03 June 1879

Catalogue ref: ADM 188/301

regards,

Martin

Martin,

Many thanks for that

The DSM appears to be for the Dardanelles and the GdG "for sevices rendered on the coast of Syria in August/16"

I don't have enough experience with this type of record but it also seems to say that he was 'severely wounded in action' at one point and this probably ties in with the ref to his being in hospital

regards

Michael

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Hi

I have a data base I have been working on for approx 10 years,that has over 37.000 names that are gazetted for foreign awards for the WW1 period. I do not claim that it is 100% but must be very close.

I have checked & I do not have Frederick Nash listed.

As I tell every one, there were cases especially with the French & Serbs, where medals were given to Commonwealth service men & women, & no permission was given by the commonwealth for them to be accepted( I have a few in my collection). These were not gazetted but are usually mentioned in unit War Diaries as awarded. I have a 14 star trio with Russian medal to a Red Cross nurse that is not gazetted but authority was given in the British Nursing Journal that she was awarded the medal.

So you have to do a lot of research to prove or disprove the award.

If you do prove the award could I ask that you let me know the details so I can add them to my data base.

Peter

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Gentlemen

Many thanks for your input.

Martin - having Nash's first name and the date of the presentation is a step forward.

Michael, I will follow up on your mention of Syria.

Regards

Tony

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Tony,

If you find anything re 'the coast of Syria August/16'

then can you please oblige and let me know

Many thanks

Michael

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Nash's service certificate shows that in August 1916 he was serving in HMS Wear. The actual entry is 'Blenheim (Wear) 1 Mch 15 - 8 Sep 16'. Blenheim was a Blake Class protected cruiser that served as a destroyer depot ship in the Mediterranean Fleet. Wear was a River class destroyer launched 1905, sold for breaking up in 1919.

This information should help narrow down Nash's participation. I'll keep looking!

The award of the CdG was obviously recognised because it was published in Royal Navy CW List 23021/17. (And presented by Adm Sir Henry Jackson who had been 1st Sea Lord until Nov 1916 and was President of the RN College Greenwich at the time of presentation.)

Peter, I think you can thus take it as fact that Petty Officer Frederick Nash, Service Number (Chatham) 181003 was awarded the Croix de Guerre for action in August 1916. (Nash was born 3 June 1879 in Loose, Kent.)

Regards

Tony

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Reading Taffrial’s Endless Story, this could be the French connection:

...... during a naval attack on the forts in the Narrows, (Dardanelles) 18th March 1915, the French battleship ‘Bouvet’ was mined while under heavy fire from the mobile howitzers and field guns. The River class destroyer 'Wear', Captain Christopher P. Metcalfe, in attendance of the 'Queen Elizabeth' throughout the operation and frequently under heavy fire, at once dashed at full speed to the 'Bouvet’s' assistance. By the time she reached the spot the battleship had sunk, but lowering her whaler under a storm of dropping shell she succeeded in rescuing 66 men.

Cheers, Terry

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his British DSM was certainly awarded in connection with the Dardanalles

and his record shows 'Wear' 1 Mch 15 - 8 Sep 16, so the above action may well be the one

However, the French GdG was (per his record) in respect of "sevices rendered on the coast of Syria in August/16"

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Vol. II of the Naval OH by Sir Julian Corbett has a different story to Taffrail; see pages 220/221

"About 4.15 the Irresistible, which, in opening out the range, had reached the 11,000 yards line, was drifting with engines stopped, when she was struck. At first he Captain was uncertain whether or not it was a torpedo, but he soon realized that it was a mine, and that it was moored. The results were disastrous. It took her under the bilge of the starboard engine-room, very near the centre line of the ship, and the engine-room flooded so quickly that only three of the men who were init were able to escape. Then under the pressure of the water the midship bulkhead buckled, the port engine-room flooded in its turn and the engines were completely disabled.

With a list of 7 degrees tom starboard and down by the stern, her condition was easily visible to the enemy, and their fire on her redoubled as the destroyer Wear and a picket boat hurried to her assistance. The Admiral, who was then ignorant of the extent of the damage or of its cause, ordered the Ocean to stand by and tow her out of action if necessary,. The remaining vessels did all they could to keep down the new outburst of fire from the forts and batteries. By the time the Wear came up, Captain Dent, seeing it was impossible to save his ship, decided to abandon her. It was no easy matter; shells were raining on her deck, causing many casualties, but by a fine display of seamanship Captain Christopher Metcalf of the Wear managed to take off 28 officers and 582 men. Only ten volunteers were left on board to get out a wire to the Ocean.

It was not until 4.50 that the Wear got back to the flagship with the rescued crew, and only then did Admiral de Robeck learn that it was a mine that had caused the trouble."

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Taffrail has a similar account regarding Wear & Irresistible later that afternoon (at about 4:15pm),

but has the French battleship Bouvet mined earlier at 2 pm and Wear rescuing 66 of her crew.

Cheers, Terry

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the French GdG was (per his record) in respect of "sevices rendered on the coast of Syria in August/16"

The action for which he received the GdG may be referred to in Vol. IV of the Naval OH: does anyone have that?

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My suspicion is that the CdG was not awarded for participation in a fleet or ship action. I haven't yet found any reference in official histories or biographies/personal accounts to Wear being involved in any action in concert with French vessels or in support of French troops ashore. I do wonder though whether Nash might have been involved in some clandestine or similar activity away from his ship?

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My suspicion is that the CdG was not awarded for participation in a fleet or ship action. I haven't yet found any reference in official histories or biographies/personal accounts to Wear being involved in any action in concert with French vessels or in support of French troops ashore. I do wonder though whether Nash might have been involved in some clandestine or similar activity away from his ship?

A recipient of a foreign award did not necessarily have to serve with or in support of or even in the country that they were receiving the award from.

Peter

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Peter,

your above is correct in respect of many cases

however here, in the case of PO Nash, his record does provide some small detail

PONashsrecordnotereGdG0001.jpg

While another document appears to show that at that time the Wear was off Smyrna, and not Syria

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This may turn out to be a cul de sac (Smyrna mistaken for Syria) but I shall pursue it for a little while longer

There was some activity there in the summer of 1916 which is described by Liman von Sanders in his 'Five Years in Turkey'

In the gulf of Smyrna, the island of Kösten had been taken over by the Entente powers in the spring of 1915; the British had artillery and an air station there. From the island of Kösten the allies could dominate the surrounding coast and the approach to the port of Smyrna (Izmir).

MapGulfofSmyrnaMay-June19160001.jpg

During the dark nights of the new moon on May 3/4 and 4/5 "tugs boats towed large lighters with guns and ammunition from the harbour at Smyrna to the promontory of Kara Burum, opposite the British anchorage at the northwest end of the island. The artillery consisted of a platoon of field artillery, a platoon of Austrian 15-cm. howitzers and a platoon of 12-cm. guns. Infantry for their protection was sent there at the same time by night marches on the one existing trail." All were concealed during the day from the allied flyers and then placed in position during the night of 5/6 May.

The Turkish artillery attack opened at 04.45 on the morning of 6 May and resulted in the wreck of the monitor M30. The destroyers there seem to have retreated to Mitylene.

It took the Turks a further month to affect a landing on the island of Kösten on June 4, at which time they discovered that the forces of the Entente powers had withdrawn. After this Kösten remained in Turkish hands for the rest of the war.

PO Nash's records shows his GdG was for action in August 1916; did the allies try to retake the island of Kösten or were their ships of the Smyrna blockade subjected to effective and damaging Turkish bombardment from their new positions on the island?

Does anyone have further information of the Gulf of Smyrna in the summer of 1916?

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  • 1 year later...

...I have a 14 star trio with Russian medal to a Red Cross nurse that is not gazetted but authority was given in the British Nursing Journal that she was awarded the medal...

Peter

Peter ,

Can you let me know the number of Russian Medal ?

Thank you !

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His Croix de Guerre may not have been awarded for any particular reason or action, etc. It was the practice, and my well still be, for countries to award medals of various types to combatants, civil servants, etc, etc, on the occasion of State or official visits. I have seen a lot of these in our national Archives. Mostly, the files start off with a letter from X country asking who the recipient country recommends that a medal be given to! This is followed up by correspondence around various ministries with various names being picked out. "No, can't give it to him, he got one from Russia last year. How about .... who hasn't had a medal for ten years". Bizarre, but that is how it was and maybe is.

Often the bloke who got the medal was a stationmaster with 30 years working for the railways, and whose claim to fame was to have personally held the level crossing gates open so that the dignitary's train wouldn't be delayed, or even on one occasion the postman who delivered the official mail to the delegation!

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  • 5 years later...

Only came across this thread today. Frederick is my Great Grandfather. I don't know anything about him. In 1922 his last child my Grand father was born and he had the middle name of Makri. We always wondered where it came from.

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I remember a couple of years ago doing some research into a Lieut E.H.Snepp.R N  who was awarded a C de G August 1916.

I believe 2 British ships  were assisting the French forces,and the award was for clearing mines from the approach to a harbour,prior to the

French attack.

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Hi

I have a Lt Hamilton E Snepp, Croix de Guerre. RN. HMS Ribble. Sweeping mines etc in Malta harbour. Aug 1916. under the following

 

File: ADM 171/172 Foreign decorations: list of Royal Navy and Marine Officers holding such decorations     1905-22

 

This is not a Gazetted award.

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