Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Six: Able Seaman R. W. E. Avis, Merchant Navy, believed to have been among those liberated from the German supply ship Altmark by H.M.S. Cossack in February 1940 and afterwards a survivor of the torpedoing of the M.V. Tulagi in April 1944 - after two months at sea in an open raft and three gallant attempts to reach separated shipmates with a new line

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Pacific Star; War Medal 1939-45; Fire Brigade Long Service, E.II.R., 2nd issue (Fireman Reuben W. E. Avis), mounted court-style for wear, nearly extremely fine (6) £300-350

Reuben William Edward Avis is believed to have been aboard the merchantman Huntsman when she was captured by the Graf Spee in the Atlantic in October 1939 - Huntsman’s crew were taken aboard the German pocket battleship and then transferred to the enemy supply ship Altmark three days later. Subsequently, in a much celebrated boarding party action undertaken by H.M.S. Cossack off Norway in February 1940, these - and other - Merchant Navy men were liberated, and once again Avis is believed to have been among them.

By early 1944, following further active service in the Mediterranean, Avis was serving in the M.V. Tulagi, which motor vessel was torpedoed by the U-532 in the Indian Ocean on the night of 27 March - the ship having gone down, one lifeboat and two rafts remained, Avis, and the Second Officer, Mr. T. Jones, among six Europeans and eight Asians in one of the latter. The lifeboat with the Master disappeared during the night and was never seen again.

And it was in this perilous state that Avis, Jones and five others finally reached land - the Chagos Islands - on 25 May, over two months after the Tulagi had been torpedoed. Tragically, the other raft became separated by mountainous seas the night before landfall was reached, though not without several gallant attempts by Avis to reach it with a new line:

‘Able Seaman Avis was a great help in the direst circumstances. Three times he swam out into the darkness to attempt to get a line to the Third Officer’s raft, and despite his weakened state he tried to rescue the Bosun at considerable risk to his own life.’

So states the Second Officer’s official report, but no reward was forthcoming. Avis entered the Surrey Fire Service after the War, and died at Bournemouth in August 1984; sold with a file of research.