Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Victory Medal 1914-19 (Asst. Constr. A. G. W. Stantan. R.C.N.C.) good very fine, scarce to unit £60-£80

Arthur George Wilkinson Stantan was born on 29 December 1887 and served during the Great War as an Assistant Constructor with the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors. Based initially at the Drawing Office at the Devonport Yard, he accompanied four ‘C’ Class Submarines to Russia in 1916 (an arduous and adventurous task that involved sailing the submarines to Archangel, and then towing them on wooden barges along the Dwina and Suchana Rivers to the Gulf of Finland), and from 1917 was involved in aircraft construction at the Malta Yard. During the inter-War years he had further spells at the Devonport Yard, where he was involved in the conversion of H.M.S. Glorious to an aircraft carrier; and at the Admiralty, where he served as Secretary of Supply Committee III and with the Sloop Section, designing H.M.S. Egret and H.M.S. Black Swan.

In 1938 Stantan became Warship Production Superintendent for the Scottish Area, and was promoted Senior Constructor the same year being recalled to the Admiralty and placed in charge of the design of the aircraft carrier H.M.S. Unicorn. Advancement to Chief Constructor rapidly followed, and he served during the Second World War in Canada with the Admiralty Technical Mission as Constructor Captain at the Ottawa HQ. In his long career, Stantan spent nearly 20 years in uniform which, it is believed, is a record for the Royal Corps. He died on 13 January 1961; surprisingly, given the long service he rendered to the Admiralty over many years, he was not given any honour or award.

Sold with a copy of ‘The Journal of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors Association’, January 1949, which includes a biography of the recipient, and a portrait photograph of him.