Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Family group:

A fine Second World War “Fighting Tenth” Submarine Flotilla D.S.C. group of six awarded to Lieutenant J. S. D. Ransome, Royal Naval Reserve, who was lost in H.M. Submarine Urge in May 1942
Distinguished Service Cross, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated ‘1941’; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals, together with related Royal Life Saving Society awards (3), comprising Reward of Merit, silver, the reverse scroll engraved, ‘J. S. Deane-Ransome, 1932’, with related enamelled lapel badge, and bronze issue, the reverse engraved, ‘J. S. Deane-Ransome, July 1931’, this last in fitted case, generally extremely fine

Three: 2nd Lieutenant F. D. Ransome, late Honourable Artillery Company
1914-15 Star (453 Dvr., H.A.C. (Art.)); British War and Victory Medals (2 Lieut.), together with a related Royal Life Saving Society award, bronze, the reverse engraved, ‘F. D. Ransome’, in its fitted case, extremely fine

Three: Mrs. C. N. Ransome, British Red Cross Society
British Red Cross Society Proficiency in Nursing Badge, gilt and enamel, with scroll clasp ‘1943, Red Cross Nursing’, the reverse engraved, ‘38610 C. Ransome’; British Red Cross Society Proficiency in First Aid Badge, gilt and enamel, with scroll clasp for ‘1944, Red Cross First Aid’, the reverse engraved, ‘012830 C. N. Ransome’; British Red Cross 3 Years Service Badge, gilt and enamel, with three further ‘3 Years Service’ clasps, the reverse officially numbered, ‘43965’, extremely fine (16) £1800-2200

D.S.C. London Gazette 2 December 1941:
‘For outstanding bravery, skill and resolution in successful submarine patrols.’

John Sandeman Deane Ransome, the son of Frank Deane Ransome and his wife, Celia Noel Ransome, was appointed a Sub. Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve in July 1940. At which point he joined H.M. Submarine Urge remains unknown, but most likely it was when she sailed from the U.K. for Malta in April 1941 - certainly his D.S.C. was awarded in respect of her war patrols in that year.

Under Lieutenant-Commander E. P. “Tommy” Tomkinson, Urge sailed for Malta via Gibraltar, an early success in her passage south being the tanker Franco Martelli as she made for Brest with oil for the U-Boat base. Having joined the famous “Fighting Tenth” Submarine Flotilla, Tompkinson and his crew quickly made their mark, the Italian torpedo boat Curtatone being sunk off Lampedusa on 21 May 1941. In fact submarine and crew won a reputation of daring second to none, many officers of the 10th considering that Tomkinson was worthy of a V.C. In an attack made the day before he sunk the Curtatone, he managed to exceed the diving limits of U-class submarines by 28 feet. John Wingate’s excellent history, The Fighting Tenth, takes up the story with Tomkinson’s patrol report:

‘The fourth torpedo hit the transport, estimated range 500 yards, and made a terrific explosion. It sounded like a biscuit tin being scrunched up. The fore-ends crew were thrown flat and had a few minutes of complete darkness. The stoker, alone in the auxiliary machine space, a Hostilities Only rating and by profession a steeplejack’s mate, was thrown right across the compartment and shaken up badly. Drastic avoiding action was taken after firing the last torpedo, as the rear destroyer on the screen was very close. After turning and slowing right down, the boat was very heavy due to flooding to get deep, and she went slowly down to 278 feet, with an angle of 10 degrees bow up. Owing to depth-charging, it was not considered safe to speed up at all before reaching this depth. Except for a few leaky rivets, there was never any sign of stress or strain anywhere.’

Another example of Tomkinson’s remarkable daring and bravery was an attack he made on an enemy destroyer during a patrol at the end of August 1941, his C.O. noting:

‘For what little it is worth I should like to record it as my opinion that Tomkinson, in his second attack, gave one of the most oustanding displays of courage yet given by a submarine C.O. in this war. Bearing in mind his previous depth-charging after breaking surface three days before, I think that almost any other C.O. would - on seeing a destroyer make a drastic alteration of course directly towards his periscope in the final stages of the attack - have gone deep and altered course. Tomkinson could have had no feeling of certainty that he had not been sighted, yet he coolly took his boat to 50 feet, let the destroyer pass directly overhead, regained his periscope depth and fired. I will find out whether this report had yet been considered for awards.’

It seems more than likely that Ransome’s D.S.C. stemmed from the very same report, and certainly one of Tomkinson’s D.S.Os.

In mid-December 1941, Tomkinson was presented with the rare chance to attack an enemy battleship, when Urge was patrolling south of Messina on the 14th - his victim, the Vittoria Veneto, was sufficiently damaged by one torpedo hit to be put out of action for several months. The Italian light cruiser Giovanni Delle Bande Nere did not fare so well. On the morning of 1 April 1942, Tomkinson scored two torpedo hits on her and she went down in three minutes. The heavy bombing and the mining of Malta’s harbours and their approaches eventually made submarine operations from the island too hazardous and, later in April 1942, it was decided to move the 10th Flotilla to Alexandria. And it was during her passage to the latter port that Urge was reported missing - she left Malta on 27 April and was expected at Alexandria on 6 May, her demise most likely having been caused by a mine. The loss of the Urge was a bitter blow to the “Fighting Tenth”. Her skipper, “Tommy” Tomkinson, who had won a brace of D.S.Os since arriving in the Mediterranean, was in the top ten of submarine aces, and he and his crew had inflicted an extraordinary amount of damage to enemy shipping and other targets. In summary, John Wingate’s history The Fighting Tenth concludes:

‘In eighteen patrols Urge had carried out nineteen attacks, scoring nineteen hits with sixty-one torpedoes. She had sent one enemy cruiser to the bottom and damaged another, hit an enemy battleship, sunk and damaged 52,635 tons of Rommel’s shipping, wrecked two trains and carried out several special missions. And before she had even reached Malta, she had sunk the Axis tanker Franco Martelli.’

Undoubtedly one of the most notable ‘special missions’ carried out by Urge was the landing of money, codes and new orders for some Sicilian agents - Sub. Lieutenant Lloyd was machine-gunned and killed on reaching the beach. In fact the period 1941-42 witnessed Urge employed on a number of clandestine missions, among them the landing of a Commando team to blow up the railway tunnel at Taormina North - the mission was a success, a train bound from Catana to Messina setting off the charges mid-tunnel with a vivid blue flash. And in March 1942 Urge conveyed Captain “Tug” Wilson, R.A., and a Royal Marine Commando, together with their canoe and assorted explosives, to a drop-off between Naples and Messina - the mission was a success, another train being blown up in the Gulf of Policastrio.

Ransome was 26 years old when he was officially posted as killed in action on 6 May 1942. He is commemorated by name on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.