Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Great War Memorial Plaque to Surgeon H. N. Dale-Richards, Royal Navy, who was killed in action whilst serving with H.M.S. Cowslip, when she was sunk by a German U-boat off Gibraltar, 25 April 1918

Memorial Plaque (Hedley Norman Dale-Richards) glazed and framed in a modern display frame, good very fine £80-£120

Hedley Norman Dale-Richards was ‘reported as killed in action, in the casualty list published on May 1st. He was educated at St. Mary's Hospital, and graduated B.Sc. Lond. in 1912, after which he held the posts of joint lecturer in biology and senior demonstrator in physiology in the Middlesex Hospital Medical School. In 1917 he took the diploma of L.M.S.S.A., and immediately joined the Navy as a Temporary Surgeon.’ (The British Medical Journal, 11 May 1918 refers)

Dale-Richards served during the Great War as a Surgeon with H.M.S. Cowslip. The latter was a sloop, and had escorted convoy HG70 out of Gibraltar, before meeting OM62 on 23 April 1918. She was escorting it into Gibraltar when she was hit and sunk by German U-boat 105. Dale-Richards was one of six killed in action, and is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.