Award of the Victoria Cross

15 August 1917 – SKIPPER THOMAS CRISP RNR, commander, HM Q-Ship Smack Nelson (61grt - below)

Born 28th April  1876, in Lowestoft Suffolk, Name on Chatham Naval Memorial. VC held by Waveney District Council

The London Gazette 2 November 1917

(Original brief account with no mention of type of operation)

from the Admiralty

HONOURS FOR SERVICES IN ACTION WITH ENEMY SUBMARINES.

The KING has been graciously pleased to approve of the award of the following honours, decorations and medals to officers and men for services in action with enemy submarines (including): —

Posthumous Award of the Victoria Cross

(right - with blue ribbon of the Royal Navy, no enlargement).

Skipper Thomas Crisp, R.N.R., 10055D.A (killed in action).

The London Gazette 20 November 1918

(Fuller account following the Armistice)

from the Admiralty

With reference to announcements of the award of the Victoria Cross to naval officers and men for services in action with enemy submarines, the following (is the account of the action for which this award was made) —

Action of H.M. Armed Smack Nelson on the 15th August, 1917.

On the 15th August, 1917, the Smack Nelson was engaged in fishing when she was attacked by gunfire from an enemy submarine. The gear was let go and the submarine's fire was returned. The submarine's fourth shot went through the port bow just below the waterline, and the seventh shell struck the skipper, Thomas Crisp, partially disembowelling him, and passed through the deck and out through the side of the ship. In spite of the terrible nature of his wound Skipper Crisp retained consciousness, and his first thought was to send off a message that he was being attacked and giving his position. He continued to command his ship until the ammunition was almost exhausted and the smack was sinking. He refused to be moved into the small boat when the rest of the crew were obliged to abandon the vessel as she sank, his last request being that he might be thrown overboard.

(The posthumous award of the Victoria Cross to Skipper Thomas Crisp, D.S.C., R.N.R., 10055 D.A., was announced in London Gazette No. 30363, dated the 2nd November, 1917.)

Skipper Crisp, a fisherman before the war, with his wife and two younger children. His wife died only two weeks before his own death in action

His son, Second Hand Thomas Crisp, awarded Distinguished Service Medal

Contemporary accounts from The Pictorial (below) and the Daily Sketch (right) after details of the action were released on the 20th November 1918

Nelson's Carrier Pigeon No 498, released before the action

 

 

Poem by W Draper, believed to have been one of the crew of HM Q-ship Nelson at the time of her loss. Composed at Lowestoft in 1917 (see survivor list at end)

"Skipper Wharton DSO and bar, and Mate G Cracknell DSM, both of whom have done splendid work during the war, watching a pigeon flight." One of the newspaper cuttings, ship and source not known, but probably from the same page as Nelson's Pigeon No.498 (above right)

right - Eastern Evening News May 1^st 1920,

including the number of honours awarded

to men of the Trawler Section, RNR

including two Victoria Crosses

Naval Awards in the Daily Mirror, 3rd November 1917

Skipper Thomas Crisp and family, including son Thomas (centre top) and son-in-law Harold Hart (bottom), both awarded DSM - latter action not known

Other awards

Left - Q-ship commander, Captain Gordon Campbell VC, bar to DSO; centre - Commander Max Horton, bar to DSO and famed for Battle of Atlantic in World War 2; right - Seaman William Williams, VC for Q-ship action, bar to DSM

THREE GENERATIONS OF THE HALES NAVAL FAMILY

Great Grandfather - Petty Officer 1st Class Edward John Hales Snr, pictured (left) at age 64 in the  14^th May 1918 edition of the Daily Mirror.

This is the only known photograph of Edward Senior, who must have been born around 1854.

Grandfather, born 7th April 1884 - Leading Seaman Edward John Hales Jnr

Edward Snr was widowed and as he spent so much time at sea, his son - also Edward John Hales - was placed with the Gordon Boys in Bournemouth, southern England, a school for military children (left - in the Gordon Boys uniform). At some point, Edward Junior was adopted by a Mr and Mrs Arnold.

His naval training took place on board HMS Boscawen (below), believed to have been moored off Portland

      

right - about HMS Boscawen

Photographed in 1914

Announcement of the award  of the Italian Medal for Valour in Bronze to Edward Jnr in a Bournemouth newspaper. Probably still at war, but date not known - possibly 1918 after service in the Mediterranean. Because of the nature of Q-ship warfare, his service in HM Smack Nelson would not have been made public

Father, born 4th November 1931, died 30th June 2002 - Godfrey Maurice Hales RN service No JX835797 believed in training at HMS St Vincent, Gosport. He was not in the Navy very long and there are few details