Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Mechanician H. J. Bowles, Royal Navy - who served throughout the war on the battleship H.M.S. Dreadnought

1914-15 Star (284798 Mech., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (284798 Mech., R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (284798 Mechn., H.M.S. Dreadnought) last with correction to naming, mounted as worn, some contact marks, nearly very fine and better (4) £100-140

Herbert Joseph Bowles was born in Clerkenwell, London on 2 April 1877. An Engine Fitter and Turner by occupation, he enlisted into the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class on 3 February 1897. He was promoted to Stoker 1st Class in April 1898 when on H.M.S. Northampton; Leading Stoker 2nd Class in May 1903 when at H.M.S. Pembroke II; Leading Stoker 1st Class in July 1904 when on H.M.S. Swiftsure; Stoker Petty Officer/Acting Mechanician in January 1908 when on H.M.S. Indus and attained the rank of Mechanician in January 1909 when on H.M.S. Goliath. He served on the battleship H.M.S. Dreadnought, March 1911-August 1918. The ship whose revolutionary design made all other battleships obsolete and which was to start a naval arms race between Britain and Germany, missed the only battle between the fleets at Jutland - the ship being the flagship of the 3rd Battle Squadron stationed in the Thames. However, Bowles was aboard the ship when she rammed and sank the German submarine U-29 off Scapa Flow, 18 March 1915. The submarine was commanded by Otto Weddigen, who as commander of the U-9 had sunk three British armoured cruisers on 22 September 1914. The U-29 is the only submarine known to have been sunk by a battleship. Bowles was awarded the L.S.& G.C. in April 1914 and demobilised in April 1919.

With copied service papers and a copied photograph of H.M.S. Dreadnought.