Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Able Seaman E. Cunnah, Royal Navy, who was one of just 20 survivors from the sinking of H.M.S. Queen Mary at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916; he was later killed during the Second World War, whilst serving as a Firewatcher in the London Blitz

1914-15 Star (J.20438., E. Cunnah, Ord. R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (J.20438 E. Cunnah. A.B. R.N.) contact marks, nearly very fine (3) £160-£200

Ernest Cunnah was born in Wandsworth, London on 12 June 1897 and joined the Royal Navy as a Boy Second Class on 16 September 1912. On 16 September 1913 he joined the battlecruiser H.M.S. Queen Mary, and served in her during the Great War, first at Heligoland Bight on 28 August 1914. Advanced Able Seaman on 10 March 1916, he served at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, and, despite sustaining splinter wounds to the inside of his left foot, his right knee and front right thigh, was one of just 20 crew members to survive her sinking with the lost of 1,266 lives.

After being rescued and landed at Rosyth by H.M.S. Laurel the following day, on 26 June 1916, a naval doctor issued him with a Certificate of Hurt and Wounds. He next served afloat in H.M.S. Iron Duke from 4 November 1916 and later participated in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. He was discharged on 11 June 1927. During the Second World War, he served as a Wandsworth Council firewatcher and on the night of 19 February 1944, was on duty at the Tate and Lyle Factory in Raft Road, Wandsworth, when he was killed in an explosion during an air raid.

His name is recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission among the civilian war dead, and, when killed, he was found to be carrying in his pocket a very creased photograph of himself in Royal Navy uniform and his wound certificate. He is buried in Wandsworth Metropolitan Borough Cemetery, London.