Orders, Decorations and Medals

Four: Engine Room Artificer 1st Class W. Richardson, Royal Navy, a Benin 1897 veteran who was killed in action in H.M.S. Hogue in September 1914

East and West Africa 1887-1900, 1 clasp, Benin 1897 (W. Richardson, E.R.A. 4 Cl., H.M.S. Philomel); 1914-15 Star (268055 W. Richardson, E.R.A. 1, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (268055 W. Richardson, E.R.A. 1, R.N.), together with related Memorial Plaque 1914-18 (William Richardson), edge bruise to the first and the second with re-impressed naming, polished and naming details therefore rubbed overall, thus nearly very fine (5) £600-800

William Richardson was born in Sunderland in February 1869 and enlisted in the Royal Navy as an Engine Room Artificer 4th Class in March 1894, shortly after which he joined the cruiser H.M.S. Philomel and was present in the Benin operations of 1897. Advanced to E.R.A. 2nd Class in March 1901 and to E.R.A. 1st Class in January 1906, but having forfeited his right to the L.S. & G.C. Medal through some misdemeanour committed in 1900, he was invalided ashore in April 1913 as a result of a diseased eye. With the advent of hostilities in August 1914, however, he volunteered for further service, and was ordered to join the armoured cruiser Hogue, and it was in this capacity that he was killed in action on 22 September 1914, when the U-9 famously sunk ‘three before breakfast’.

At that time, the Hogue, together with her sister ships the Aboukir and Cressy, part of the 7th Cruiser Squadron, were engaged in blockade and patrol duties in the southern part of the North Sea. At 6.30 a.m. on 22 September, the Aboukir was torpedoed by the U-9 and, believing that the ship had struck a mine, the Hogue and Cressy stopped to rescue the survivors, oblivious of the danger lurking beneath the waves. Shortly afterwards, torpedoes from the U-9 also sent the Hogue and then the Cressy to the bottom, the total loss of life amounting to some 1,400 officers and ratings; sold with extensive research.