Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The L.S. & G.C. Medal awarded to Seaman W. Barron, Royal Naval Reserve, who survived the loss of the battleship Triumph in the Dardanelles and the hospital ship Warilda in the Channel

Royal Naval Reserve L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (3669D W. Barron, Smn., R.N.R.), good very fine £100-150

William Barron was born in at Nairn, Inveness in June 1883 and entered the Royal Naval Reserve in December 1907.

Mobilised on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he was embarked in S.S. Malwa for the Far East where, on 17 October 1914, he joined the ship’s company of the battleship Triumph. He was consequently present in operations off north China, the Triumph forming part of an Anglo-Japanese Squadron. In early 1915, the Triumph was assigned to the Eastern Mediterranean and took part in several attacks on the Turkish forts in the Dardanelles in February-March, in addition to destroying the stranded submarine E-15, which had run aground off Kephez and been captured by the Turks. Triumph next provided artillery support for the landing of the Australians and New Zealanders at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915.

At midday on 25 May, Triumph was torpedoed by U-21 (Commander Otto Hersing). Hersing saw the old battleship near Gaba Tepe with a ring of destroyers circling round her, waited for his chance, and fired. The torpedo passed easily through the Triumph’s nets and the ship at once took a heavy list. For eight minutes, while the destroyers came rushing in to the rescue, she remained at an angle of forty-five degrees, spilling her crew into the sea. Then she capsized and floated for a time with her green bottom upwards in the sunlight. The crews on the neighbouring ships stood to attention as she made her last plunge to the bottom through clouds of smoke and steam, taking with her 71 of her ship’s company. All this took place in full view of the two opposing armies on the shore, and while the Anzac soldiers watched in dismay a cheer came up from the Turkish trenches.

Barron was among the survivors and in early September 1915 he was drafted to the Andes, an armed merchant cruiser, in home waters.

On the morning of 29 February 1916 Andes and her consort, Alcantara, were patrolling to the north-east of the Shetland Islands, exercising particular vigilance as there was intelligence that a raider was about to run the blockade. Andes sighted a suspicious vessel and signalled a warning to Alcantara, which intercepted the ship. Alcantara was about to send a boat to board the suspicious ship when the latter ran up German colours, removed screens which concealed her guns, and opened fire. An intense close-range duel followed, in which both ships were sunk. Andes joined in at the later stages of the battle and rescued the survivors of the two ships. The German vessel was the armed merchant cruiser Greif, which had just sailed from Kiel bound for the Atlantic on a raiding voyage. Andes returned to the Mersey with one officer and 110 men from the Greif.

In July 1917, Barron came ashore to an appointment in Victory at Portsmouth and then at the gunnery establishment Excellent but he returned to sea with an appointment in the hospital ship Warilda in the summer of 1918.

On 3 August 1918 Warilda was on passage from Le Havre, France, to Southampton, escorted by two patrol boats. In addition to her crew of 117 she was carrying 70 medical staff and 614 wounded and sick. At about 1.30 in the morning she was torpedoed by U-49. Hit between the engineroom and No. 4 hold, the explosion not only killed the engineers and staff below, but also resulted in the loss of 101 patients lying in an improvised ward in this hold. The ship sank by the stern, touched the bottom, and capsized. Altogether, 113 patients, one nurse, two other medical staff and seven of the crew perished. For the second time, Barron had to swim for his life.

Barron was again posted to Victory and Excellent, then drafted back to President III and continued to serve on Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships until the end of the war. He was demobilized on 21 February 1919 but remained on the strength of the R.N.R. until December 1932. He was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in August 1924; sold with copied research, an old picture postcard of the Warilda.