Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Able Seaman A. H. Dyer, Royal Navy, who was lost in H.M. Submarine Thames in July or August 1940

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939-45, with named Admiralty enclosure (Arthur Henry Dyer) and Admiralty letter advising death presumed on 3rd August 1940 on War Service, nearly extremely fine (3) £120-£160

Arthur Henry Dyer, Able Seaman, H.M. Submarine Thames, died on 3 August 1941, and is commemorated by name on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

H.M.S. Thames (Lt.Cdr. William Donald Dunkerley, R.N.) was possibly mined in the North Sea, on the way back from her patrol area to her base at Dundee, in early August 1940. She was reported overdue on 5 August 1940, after she was supposed to have returned to Dundee on 3 August 1940.

It is also possible that H.M.S. Thames was lost following her attack on the German battlecruiser Gneisenau on 26 July 1940. One of the escort vessels of the Gneisenau, that was on passage from Trondheim, Norway to Kiel, Germany, was the torpedo boat Luchs, which was sunk in this attack by torpedoes from H.M.S. Thames.

The counter-attack by the escort of the Gneisenau is reported to have been ineffective and it is very doubtful that H.M.S. Thames was lost as a result of it. This is why the general consensus is that she was mined on her return trip. Of course we may never know the exact cause of the loss of H.M.S. Thames unless the wreck is found. It is however strange that H.M.S. Thames did not make an enemy report following her attack as the Gneisenau was a very important target.