Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 3rd issue, coinage head (J.73230 D. Allen. A.B. H.M.S. Medway.) minor official correction to ship, nearly very fine £50-£70

David Allen was born in West Ham, Essex, on 8 February 1902 and joined the Royal Navy as a Boy Second Class on 10 July 1917. He was paid a War gratuity for service in H.M.S. Conqueror from 27 January 1918, and was promoted Able Seaman on 31 August 1921. He was posted to the Submarine Service in 1926 and was awarded his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal on 4 April 1935, whilst borne on the books of H.M.S. Medway.

Allen was posted to the submarine H.M.S. Triton on 14 July 1938, and was serving in her when War was declared on 3 September 1939. A week later, on 10 September 1939, whilst patrolling off the Norwegian coast, H.M.S. Triton spotted and misidentified H.M.S. Oxley - after four challenges went unanswered, Triton fired two torpedoes at Oxley, sinking her with only two survivors, the first Royal Navy submarine lost during the Second World War. The subsequent Board of Enquiry found that the Captain of Triton had acted correctly and done all he reasonably could in the circumstances (Oxley was out of position and did not acknowledge Triton’s signals), and loss of Oxley was attributed to an accidental explosion- it was not until the mid 1950s that the truth was publicly acknowledged.

Continuing her War patrols, Triton operated in the Baltic, North Sea, and Mediterranean. On 28 November she left Malta for a patrol in the southern Adriatic Sea. She was never heard of again, and she was declared lost with all hands on 18 December. It is probable that she was sunk by naval mines in the Strait of Otranto. Allen is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

Sold with copied record of service.