Orders, Decorations and Medals

A St George’s Day raid D.S.M. awarded to Signalman H. A. S. Clinch, H.M.S. Thetis, who was wounded at Zeebrugge

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (J.34097 Sig. “Thetis” Zeebrugge-Ostend. 22-3 Apl. 1918) good very fine £450-550

D.S.M. London Gazette 23 July 1918: ‘For services during the operations against Zeebrugge and Ostend on the night of the 22nd-23rd April, 1918.’ One of eight D.S.M’s awarded to the Thetis.

Thetis was the leading blockship in the raid on Zeebrugge. As she passed round the end of the Mole under a heavy fire, she was caught by the east-going tidal stream and carried towards the boom of entanglement nets which so badly fouled her propellors that her engines were brought to a stop. Thetis now came under extremely heavy fire from the Mole and from shore batteries near the canal. She was hit again and again as she took the brunt of the firing while her two consorts were following comparatively undamaged. She could do little more now than assist Intrepid and Iphigenia to reach their objectives. Prearranged signals, therefore, were made to these other two ships guiding them to the canal. It was thank’s to Thetis’s signals that these two blockships were able to locate the entrance piers. Signalman Clinch would obviously have played a prominent part in these proceedings during which he was wounded by gunshots.

Harold Albert Stephen Clinch was born in Bromley, Kent, on 26 June 1899, and joined the navy in June 1917. He was invalided from the navy on 4 June 1919, due to gunshot wounds received in action off the Belgian Coast on 23 April 1918. He appears to have re-enlisted into the Royal Air Force in September 1922. Sold with copy service record.