Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part III)

Seven: Stoker Petty Officer G. A. C. Gay, who won a “mention” in the destroyer Alarm in January 1943, when he kept “steam up” in the boiler-room in spite of his ship ‘being subjected to further enemy attack and being in a sinking condition’

1939-45 Star; Pacific Star; Burma Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (K. 62166 S.P.O., H.M.S. Whitehall), mounted as worn, contact marks, generally very fine or better (7) £250-300

Graham Albert Charles Gay was born at Kingswood, Bristol in February 1904 and entered the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in August 1923. Advanced to Stoker 1st Class a year later, he transferred to the submarine branch in January 1927 and was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in August 1938, by which stage he had returned to more regular seagoing duties and was serving aboard the destoyer H.M.S. Whitehall. It is not improbable, therefore, that he was still aboard her at the time of the evacuation of Dunkirk, when she brought out well over 2000 men.

More certain is the fact that he was serving in a minesweeper, the Alarm, by January 1943, for it was aboard that ship in the same month that he won his “mention” (London Gazette 4 May 1943):

‘Stoker Petty Officer Gay was on watch in the boiler-room and maintained steam for circulator supply in spite of the ship being subjected to further enemy attack and being in a sinking condition’ (original recommendation refers).

The attack occurred at 8.30 a.m. on the morning of 2 January 1943, when the Alarm was berthed alongside a merchant vessel in Bone harbour. Her ship’s company quickly went to “Action Stations” and fire was opened with close range weapons on the attacking aircraft, but about ten minutes into the attack a bomb exploded under the minesweeper and she began to settle by the stern. It was later discovered - after she had been beached - that her hull had been holed on the port side in the engine room, as well as in the fresh water tanks and provision room. As it transpired, this was not to be Gay’s only experience of coming under sustained enemy air attack, for, a week or two later, on the 17th, the Alarm was damaged again by three enemy aircraft, this time by a hit on the port side aft and by the detonation of another bomb on the sea bed after it had penetrated the bottom of the ship in the engine room, a fact undoubtedly not lost on Gay.