Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Lieutenant-Commander John Martin, Royal Naval Reserve, Commander of sailing Q-Ships Dargle and Fresh Hope

British War and Victory Medals (Lt. Commr. J. Martin. R.N.R.); Mercantile Marine War Medal (John Martin) mounted as worn, very fine (3) £300-£360

Dix Noonan Webb, June 1998.

John Martin was temporary Lieutenant in August 1915, and temporary Lieutenant-Commander in April 1919. The Admiral Commanding Orkney and Shetland, Admiral F. E. Brock, complained to the Commander in Chief, Grand Fleet about the commander of the sailing Q-Ship H.M.S. Dargle, Lieutenant J. Martin, saying that Martin was of ‘an excitable temperament which is most undesirable... He is constantly using his motors and does not appear to realise the importance of making his vessel look like a peaceful merchant ship... He is constantly making complaints about his ship.’

Martin resigned from his command on the grounds of ill health, but Captain James Startin, Senior Naval Officer, Granton, who felt that he was a very capable officer ‘but certainly difficult as regards naval etiquette and discipline’, had him transferred to another vessel. A year later, as commander of Fresh Hope, another sailing Q-Ship, Martin justified this good opinion by bringing the fore-and-aft schooner into an encounter with a U-Boat on which he scored four direct hits. After the War, Martin was engaged in mine sweeping duties in the East Indies in command of H.M.S. Ban-What-Him.