Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Able Seaman S. F. Staff, Royal Navy, who was killed on board H.M.S. Viola by a premature depth charge explosion while attacking an enemy U-Boat on 18 June 1918

British War and Victory Medals (J.28581 S. F. Staff. A.B. R.N.); Memorial Plaque (Stanley Frederick Staff) nearly extremely fine (3) £80-£120

Stanley Frederick Staff was born in September 1898 in Westleton, Suffolk. He entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in the boys training establishment Ganges in November 1913 aged 15 years. Rated Boy 1st Class within a year, he joined the light cruiser H.M.S. Penelope in that rate on 10 December 1914, the day of its commission. In August 1915 Penelope was assigned to the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron of the Harwich Force, tasked with guarding the eastern approaches to the English Channel, and in the course of these duties, on 25 April 1916, she was damaged by a torpedo from the German submarine UB-29 off the Norfolk coast.

Staff returned to the Shore Establishment Pembroke I on 20 May 1916 and was promoted Ordinary Seaman on 1 September 1916. After briefly serving in the Armed Merchant Cruiser, Oratava, Staff joined the decoy-ship, Q.14, from 21 September 1916 and was promoted Able Seaman on 1 January 1917. Remaining on the same ship, now renamed H.M.S. Viola, he was killed by a premature depth charge explosion on 18 June 1918 while carrying out an attack on an enemy U-Boat. Court of Enquiry papers, ADM 137/3761, state that a depth charge fired from the starboard discharger exploded on hitting the sea 100 yards from the ship. Ten depth charges were dropped over the stern, two were fired from port and two fired from the starboard dischargers. No kill was noted and Able Seaman S. F. Staff was the only casualty recorded.

Staff is buried in Lerwick New Cemetery on the Shetland Islands, and is commemorated on the Westleton War Memorial.