Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Leading Seaman H. G. Collyer, Royal Navy, who drowned on 26 December 1918

Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Persian Gulf 1909-1914 (J.58. H. G. Collyer, A.B., H.M.S. Alert.); British War and Victory Medals (J.58 H. G. Collyer. L.S. R.N.) nearly extremely fine (3) £140-£180

Henry George Collyer was born in Stepney, London, on 21 October 1890, and joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on 8 January 1908. He was advanced Able Seaman on 4 August 1910, and joined H.M.S. Alert on 12 June 1912, remaining in her until 6 March 1914. He served during the Great War in the destroyer H.M.S. Lydiard from 24 June 1914 to 19 September 1915; the destroyer H.M.S. Parker from 30 August 1916 to 15 November 1917; and in the torpedo gunboat H.M.S. Hussar from 16 November 1917 to 6 November 1918, and was advanced Leading Seaman on 18 July 1918. He was reported missing ‘since required for the noon watch on 26 December 1918’ whilst serving in the battleship H.M.S. Duncan (then in dock at Chatham Dockyard), and the following day he was found drowned in one of the dockyard basins. The Board of Enquiry found that ‘no blame is attributable to anyone and there is no evidence to suggest that it was a case of suicide.’ It therefore seems possible that he had enjoyed too many drinks on Christmas Day, and had tripped and fallen into the basin when drunk.

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