Four: Able Seaman W. S. Royce, Royal Navy, afterwards London Fire Brigade, a veteran of H.M.S. Fame’s cutlass wielding boarding party who went on to see action off ‘W’ Beach in the Gallipoli landings

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 1 clasp, Natal (185498 A.B. W. S. Royce, H.M.S. Terrible); China 1900, 1 clasp, Taku Forts (W. C. Royce, A.B., H.M.S. Fame), note second initial; Coronation 1911, London Fire Brigade issue (Fireman W. S. Royce); Royal Fleet Reserve L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., coinage bust (185498 (Ch. B. 1505) W. S. Royce, A.B., R.F.R.), contact marks, otherwise generally very fine (4) £600-800

William Stanley Royce was born in Danbury, Essex in September 1879 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in September 1895. Advanced to Able Seaman, he was drafted to the cruiser H.M.S. Terrible in September 1899, in which capacity he served ashore in Natal during the Boer War and qualified for the above described Medal & clasp.

Shortly afterwards, Royce removed to the destroyer Fame on the China Station, under the command of Lieutenant Roger Keyes, R.N., afterwards Admiral of the Fleet, and it was in this later capacity that he participated in a spectacular cutting-out operation undertaken by Fame, and her consort, Whiting, on 17 June 1900, when both ships were ordered to capture four Chinese destroyers lying between Taku and Tongku - each ship towed into action a whaler manned by a dozen “Bluejackets”, all of them volunteers, on one of the last occasions boarding parties went into action with the cutlass.

In his subsequent report to the Rear-Admiral, China Station, dated 27 June 1900, Keyes stated:

‘After a slight resistance and the exchange of a few shots, the crews were driven overboard or below hatches; there were a few killed and wounded; our casualties were nil. No damage was done to the prizes, but the Fame’s bow was slightly bent when we closed to board, and the Whiting was struck by a projectile about 4 or 5 inches abreast a coal bunker. This was evidently fired from a mud battery on the bend between Taku and Tongku, which fired in all about 30 shots at us, none of the others striking, though several coming very close ... There was a good deal of sniping from the dockyard so I directed all cables of the prizes to be slipped and proceeded to tow them up to Tongku.’

Royce duly qualified for one of just 65 China Medals awarded to Fame’s crew, most of them with single “Taku Forts” clasp, and, returning to the U.K., purchased his discharge in September 1903, in order to join the London Fire Brigade, though he was transferred to the Royal Fleet Reserve on the same occasion.

Duly recalled on the outbreak of hostilities, he joined the armoured cruiser Euryalus, which ship was ordered to the Dardanelles early in the following year and played a prominent part in the Gallipoli landings at ‘W’ Beach on 25 April 1915, when she disembarked the men of the Lancashire Fusiliers, shortly to win ‘Six V.Cs Before Breakfast’. Royce remained actively engaged in the Euryalus until coming ashore in April 1917, and he was demobilised that July on rejoining the London Fire Brigade; sold with a file of research.