Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Nine: Stoker Petty Officer R. A. Parker, Royal Navy

1914-15 Star (K. 23396 Sto. 1, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (K. 23396 Sto. 1, R.N.); Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1939-1939 (KX. 91018 S.P.O., R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 2nd issue, fixed suspension (K. 23396 L. Sto., H.M.S. Pembroke), the first three polished, thus fine or better, the remainder generally very fine and better (9) £220-250

Reginald Alexander Parker was born in Ipswich, Suffolk in July 1896 and entered the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in November 1914. Advanced to Stoker 1st Class in the following year, he served in the flotilla leader H.M.S. Botha between March 1915 and January 1918, a period that encompassed duty with the Dover Patrol.

The Botha had been requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1914, on the eve of her completion for the Chilean Navy, and accordingly had excellent accomodation for her Captain but far less comfortable quarters for the crew. Among other obvious assets, the Captain’s cabin boasted superb quality Chilean furniture, plenty of headroom and silver-plated chandeliers that ‘would have compared with those at Buckingham Palace’, according to Evans of the Broke, a similar ship. Quite how these luxurious fittings fared on 27 October 1917, when the Botha and her escorts engaged three enemy destroyers, remains unknown, but several men were wounded before the latter were compelled to withdraw. Similarly, too, as a result of excellent gunnery, a force of enemy aircraft was driven-off.

Parker completed his wartime career with appointments aboard the sloop Amaryllis and the gunboat Ladybird, both of them in Egyptian waters. He was advanced to Leading Stoker in August 1925.