Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Gallipoli Landings D.S.M. awarded to Chief Yeoman of Signals A. J. Chatwin, H.M.S. Cornwallis, for services ashore on “S” Beach

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (156109 A. J. Chatwin, C.Y.S. H.M.S. Cornwallis 25-6 April 1915) later impressed naming, good very fine £200-300

D.S.M. London Gazette 16 August 1915. One of only 24 D.S.M’s awarded specifically for the Gallipoli Landings.

Chief Yeoman of Signals Chatwin’s act of gallantry was performed on the morning of 25th April, 1915, when the ship’s boats and a small naval brigade from H.M.S. Cornwallis assisted in landing the 2nd Bn. The South Wales Borderers on “S” Beach at Gallipoli. The landing was made under the almost sheer bluff known as De Totts Battery, which was quickly stormed by the combined military and naval force. After a sharp fight, the crest of the position was taken, along with two lines of Turkish trenches, and as the assault force paused before striking inland, they came under an extremely hot and accurate fire from Turkish batteries on the Asiatic and European sides of the Strait.

Chief Yeoman Chatwin, the senior signal warrant officer, at once leapt to an exposed position on the front of the captured battery and signalled, for a long period, the various positions of the Turkish artillery. Although he was under heavy shrapnel and sniper fire all the while he was exposed, Alfred Chatwin never paused in his determination to get messages through. Captain Davidson, the commanding officer of H.M.S. Cornwallis, who accompanied the landing, attributed to Chatwin’s gallantry the saving of many lives, and specifically mentioned him in his despatch.