A fine ‘V.C. Action’ survivor’s pair awarded to Deck Hand J. J. Tresidder, Royal Naval Reserve, late Royal Navy, who served aboard M.L.282 under the Command of Lieutenant P. T. Dean, R.N.V.R., during the Zeebrugge Raid of 22-23 April 1918

With her decks crowded with dead and dying men from the canal blockships, her skipper determined to motor so close to the enemy that the larger calibre shore armament was unable to depress sufficiently to end the affair with a single salvo, but close enough that the launch was riddled with machine-gun bullets

British War and Victory Medals (13999D.A. J. J. Tresidder. D.H. R.N.R.) extremely fine (2) £200-£240

John James Tresidder was born in the Parish of Wendron, Cornwall, on 13 April 1885. A member of the Tregullow Lodge of Freemasons at St. Day, Tresidder initially worked as an insurance agent in the market and mining towns of Truro, Camborne and Redruth, before joining the Royal Navy at Devonport on 6 October 1916 (Service No. J.60113, sp. ‘Tressider’).

Transferred to the Royal Naval Reserve on 25 December 1916, he served a further few months at Devonport before being sent to Portsmouth on 29 March 1917. Posted to M.L.282 from 12 May 1917 to 1 January 1919, Tresidder served aboard the motor launch in operations off the Belgian coast and during the Zeebrugge Raid. To fully appreciate the role of M.L.282 during the latter, it would be apt to quote Admiral Sir Roger Keyes:
‘The rescue work of M.L.256 (Littleton) and M.L.282 (Dean and Wright) was simply magnificent, and but for them, very few of the blockships’ crews would have escaped... Owing to the breakdown of M.L.128, and the sinking of M.L.110, Dean was left with the task of bringing out all the rest of the blockships’ crews, about double the number he anticipated. His skill and heroic determination was simply incredible. Under a deadly machine-gun and heavy fire, he embarked over 100 officers and men in his frail craft. Hearing that an officer had been left behind in the water, he returned into the canal and picked him up. Having no room to turn, he went out full speed astern, towing a cutter from his stem, handling his with his engines, his steering gear having been damaged. When about to pass the Mole and battery, he ran in under the Mole and rounded the extension so close, that the guns could not be depressed to fire on him, and he kept them in line while he went to seaward. Throughout the escape, the M.L. was under constant machine-gun fire; Dean’s second-in-Command (Wright) and three of his four deckhands were shot down beside him, and a great many of his passengers were killed or wounded.’

Remarkably, it appears that Tresidder was the one crew member who escaped unscathed. A short while later, Lieutenant Percy Dean was awarded the Victoria Cross. Returned home to Cornwall, Tresidder returned to his life as an insurance agent in the Wadebridge area. He died in Launceston in July 1970.

Note: The D.S.C. group of five awarded to Lieutenant J. C. K. ‘Shiner’ Wright, R.N.V.R., who was decorated as 2i/c aboard M.L.282 during the same raid, was sold in these rooms in December 2007 for a hammer price of £16,000.