Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Leading Seaman J. Horner, Royal Navy, a recipient of the Russian Medal of Zeal for his services in H.M.S. Jupiter in 1915

1914-15 Star (203902 J. Horner, A.B., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (203902 J. Horner, L.S., R.N.); Naval Good Shooting Medal, E.VII.R. (203902 J. Horner, A.B., H.M.S. Cornwall, 1910, 3 Pr. Q.F.); Russia, Medal of Zeal, Nicholas II, small, silver (203902 J. Horner, A.B., H.M.S. Jupiter), rate officially corrected on the fourth, contact marks, generally very fine (5) £600-800

James Horner was born in Belfast in October 1883 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in March 1899. Advanced to Able Seaman in May 1903, he was awarded the Naval Good Shooting Medal for his performance as a gunlayer in the 3-pounder quick firing class in H.M.S. Cornwall during the annual competition held in 1910. Having then been advanced to Leading Seaman, he came ashore ‘time expired’ in October 1913, when he was enrolled in the Royal Fleet Reserve.

Quickly recalled on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he joined H.M.S. Jupiter, in which capacity he was to be awarded the Russian Medal of Zeal (London Gazette 19 November 1915, refers). In January 1915 the Admiralty received a request for assistance from the Russian Government, their icebreaker used to keep open the passage to Archangel in the White Sea had broken down. In response the Royal Navy sent out the Tyne Guard Ship H.M.S. Jupiter, an old Majestic-class battleship. She departed for Archangel in February 1915, freeing en route a number of vessels stuck in the ice, occasionally by using explosive charges. She, too, sometimes became icebound, but still managed to make a major impression on the problem, improving the safe passage of numerous vessels, many of them laden with highly important war materials, among them the S.S. Thracia. The latter was taken in tow after the use of explosive charges to free her. Throughout these operations it was not unusual for the temperature to fall as low as minus 20 degrees, a hard test indeed on the morale and well being of the Jupiter’s crew. Her mission completed by May 1915, the Tzar expressed his gratitude by the presentation of a variety of Russian Honours and Awards to her crew, Horner among them.

His next seagoing appointment was in the cruiser Carnarvon between August 1915 and March 1918, in which period he participated on the search for the enemy raider Moewe in addition to convoy escort work. His final appointment was in the R.F.A. Petroleum from October 1918 until March 1919, when he was demobilised; sold with copied research, including service record.