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Picture courtesy of Noonan's

CGM GV (189243. A. O. Davis, Ldg. Smn. “Iphigenia.” Zeebrugge-Ostend. 22-23. Apl.1918);
QSA (1) Natal (A. O. Davis, A.B., H.M.S. Terpsichore.);
1914-15 Star (189243. A. O. Davis, L.S., R.N.);
British War and Victory Medals (189243 A. O. Davis. L.S. R.N.);
France, Third Republic, Croix de Guerre 1914-1917, with bronze palme;
Italy, Kingdom, Messina Earthquake 1908, silver.

CGM London Gazette 23 July 1918: ‘Honours for services in the operations against Zeebrugge and Ostend on the night of 22nd-23rd April, 1918.’ The original recommendation states: ‘This man remained at his station by the hand wheel in Iphigenia, armed with a box of ammonal and detonators with which it was intended to destroy the guns, until after the cutter had left. The Commanding Officer of Iphigenia had previously told him that he would tell him when to destroy his gun but overlooked it and left the ship after firing the mines. Davis bravely remained at his post until the ship sank under him, when he jumped into the water and swam to the boats’.

French Croix de Guerre London Gazette 28 August 1918: ‘For services in the operations against Zeebrugge and Ostend’

Albert Oscar Davis was born at Lambeth, Surrey, on 15 September 1880, and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in June 1896. Advanced to Ordinary Seaman in September 1898 and to Able Seaman one year later, he served off South Africa in HMS Terpsichore from April 1901, qualifying for the ‘Cape Colony’ and ‘South Africa 1901’ clasps and not that for ‘Natal’ as presently attached to his Queen’s South Africa Medal (TNA ADM171/53, refers). His service record states that he was invalided from Terpsichore in April 1904 and ‘sent home by mail steamer.’

Joining the cruiser Duncan in August 1908, Davis went on to qualify for the Messina Earthquake Medal prior to being discharged ashore ‘time expired’ at the end of 1910. But he quickly rejoined via the Royal Fleet Reserve, being appointed a Leading Seaman in June 1911.

A Leading Seaman in the cruiser Lancaster on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he remained likewise employed until coming ashore in July 1915, followed by further seagoing service in the sloop Zinnia from November 1915 to November 1917. The latter period witnessed Zinnia carrying out several attacks on U-boats off the Irish coast and elsewhere, in addition to enacting valuable rescue work, including assistance lent to the torpedoed Q-ship Pargust in June 1917.

As related above, however, his moment of glory occurred during his next appointment aboard the cruiser Iphigenia, when she was scuttled as a blockship in the Bruges canal during the famous Zeebrugge raid. Unusually the recommendation for his CGM omits mention of the fact that he received gunshot wounds and a fractured humerus, an omission put right on his service record (TNA ADM188/322 refers). He was also awarded an annuity of £10. Davis, who was invalided in August 1919, later served in the Merchant Navy and settled in Australia.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including his Board of Trade Continuous Certificate of Discharge, with entries for August 1919 to August 1922; Membership Booklets of the National Sailors’ and Firemen’s Union and Federated Seamen’s Union of Australasia, the former with entries for January 1920 to August 1922, and the latter April 1924 to June 1928; a Melbourne Harbour Trust (Engineering Branch) Certificate of Service (dated 24 April 1929); a Commonwealth of Australia ‘Peace Officer’ Certificate of Discharge (dated 4 September 1942); a British Ministry of Pensions letter referring to the recipient’s pensionable disabilities as ‘gunshot wound head and right arm, deafness and nasal obstruction’ (dated 10 May 1950), and other related correspondence.