Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War anti-U-boat operations D.S.M. group of six awarded to Leading Seaman J. S. MacKenzie, Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Reserve, who, as Gunlayer of the 12-pounder gun aboard H.M. Trawler Ina Williams scored two if not three direct hits, resulting in the probable destruction of a German U-boat in June 1915

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (S.S. 700 J. S. MacKenzie A.B. H.M. Tr. Ina Williams.); 1914-15 Star (SS. 700 J. S. Mackenzie, L.S., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (S.S. 700 J. S. MacKenzie. L.S. R.N.); Royal Fleet Reserve L.S. & G.C., G.V.R. (SS. 700 Dev. B. 2806 J. S. MacKenzie. L.S. R.F.R.); Imperial Service Medal, G.VI.R., 2nd issue (John Simpson MacKenzie, D.S.M.) the last with official corrections, good very fine (6) £1,000-£1,400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of David Lloyd.

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D.S.M. London Gazette 6 August 1915. The recommendation states: ‘H.M.T. Ina Williams No. 2658. Action with German submarine 5 June 1915. Gunlayer 12pdr gun. The firing of two hits and possibly three out of six from a trawler is excellent. The action reflected the greatest credit on Sub Lieutenant Nettleingham and his crew.’

John Simpson MacKenzie was born at Bathgate, Linlithgow, on 16 June 1886, and entered the Royal Navy as an Ordinary Seaman in July 1904. Coming ashore as an Able Seaman ‘time expired’ in July 1909, he enrolled in the Royal Fleet Reserve and was recalled on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, when he joined the battleship H.M.S. Albion.

But it was for his subsequent services in H.M. Trawler Ina Williams in the following year, on 5 June 1915, while operating out of the Queenstown base Colleen, that he was awarded the D.S.M. Newbolt’s Submarine and Anti-Submarine takes up the story:

‘The Ina Williams (now His Majesty's Trawler, Ina Williams) was steaming towards the Irish coast at seven o'clock, one evening in early summer, when she sighted a large submarine on her port beam, some two and a half miles away. The enemy had just come to the surface; for there was no sign of him in that direction a few moments before, and he had not yet got his masts or ventilators up. The Ina Williams was armed, fortunately, with a 12-pounder gun, and commanded by Sub-Lieutenant C. Nettleingham, R.N.R., who had already been commended for good conduct, and after nine months’ hard work was not likely to lose a fighting chance.

He headed straight for the U-boat. She might, of course, submerge at any moment, leaving the pursuer helpless. But Mr. Nettleingham calculated that she would disdain so small an enemy, and remain upon the surface, relying upon her trained gunners and keeping her superiority of speed, with her torpedoes in case of extreme necessity. He was right in the main. The U-boat accepted battle by gunfire; but a torpedo which missed the starboard quarter of the Ina Williams by only 10 feet must have been fired at least as soon as the trawler sighted her, and showed that the enemy was not disposed to underrate even a British fishing-boat. Mr. Nettleingham had saved his ship by the promptness with which he turned towards the submarine, and he now opened fire, keeping helm to avoid any further torpedoes.

The fight was a triumph for English gunnery. The Ina Williams had the good fortune to have fallen in with a wildshot. All his five shells were misses - some short, some on the trawler's starboard side. The gunner of the Ina Williams had probably had no experience of firing at a moving target, almost level with the water. The U-boat was going 10-12 knots, too, and that was faster than he expected. The result was that his first three shots failed to get her; they fell astern, but each one distinctly nearer than the last. The pirate commander did not like the look of things; he called in his guns’ crews and prepared to submerge. Too late. The British gunner's fourth shot caught the U-boat on the water-line, half-way between conning-tower and stern. A fifth followed instantly, close abaft the conning-tower itself. The wounded submarine was probably by this time out of hand, for she continued to submerge. Just before she disappeared, the sixth shell struck the conning-tower full at the water-line, and the fight was over. It had lasted fifteen minutes, and the Ina Williams was still 3,400 yards away when the enemy sank. She steamed straight on to the position of the U-boat, and found that even after the ten minutes which it took her to reach the spot, large bubbles of air were still rising, and the sea was being more and more thickly covered with a large lake of oil. The depth was fifty fathoms, and out of that depth, while the Ina Williams steamed round and round her buoy, she had the satisfaction of seeing the dead brute's life-blood welling up with bursts of air-bubbles for nearly an hour, until the sea was thick for five hundred yards, and tainted for a much further distance. The smell of the stuff was peculiar, and new to the trawler's crew; they could not find the right word to describe it. But they were eager to scent it again, and as often as possible, for it meant good work, good pay and a good report.

This was a thoroughly professional bit of service, a single fight at long range.’

Sub-Lieutenant Nettleingham was rewarded with the D.S.C. and Able Seaman Mackenzie, the gunlayer, with the D.S.M.

MacKenzie would appear to have remained employed in trawlers for the remainder of the War and was demobilised in March 1919. He was afterwards employed as a postal and telegraph officer in Edinburgh and was awarded the Imperial Service Medal in 1949 (London Gazette 1 November). Sold with full research.