Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Great War seaplane carrier operations D.S.C. group of six awarded to Commander J. Jenkins, Royal Naval Reserve: as captain of Raven II, he worked in close liaison with Lawrence of Arabia in Palestine 1916-17, the latter on one occasion providing a sketch of Turkish positions to assist the aim of his seaplane pilots

Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R., hallmarks for London 1919; 1914-15 Star (Lieut., R.N.R.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut., R.N.R.); Royal Naval Reserve Decoration, G.V.R., silver, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1920; French Croix de Guerre 1914-1917, with bronze star riband fitment, mounted as worn and contained within an old leather box, the lid gilt inscribed, ‘J. Jenkins, D.S.C., R.D., R.N.R.’, generally good very fine (6) £2500-3000

D.S.C. London Gazette 20 July 1917:

‘For services in command of a seaplane-carrying vessel on the East Indies and Egypt Stations during the period 1 April 1916 to 31 March 1917.’

French Croix de Guerre London Gazette 22 February 1918.

John Jenkins, who was originally commissioned into the Royal Naval Reserve in December 1911, served briefly in the cruiser H.M.S. Swiftsure prior to being appointed to the command of the seaplane carrier Raven II in late January 1915 - actually the ex-German Rabenfels which had been seized on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914. And he served in that capacity throughout Raven II’s entire seaplane-carrying career, right up until November 1917, when she was re-converted for use as a store-carrier.

Working in company with her consorts Anne (Lieutenant J. Kerr, D.S.C.) and Ben-my-Chree (Commander C. R. Samson, D.S.O.), Raven II’s seaplanes offered valuable assistance in molesting the Turks on the eastern shores of the Red Sea throughout much of 1915, flying on reconnaissance and spotting work, in addition to anti-submarine patrols and specific bombing missions. Afterwards, too, they flew similar sorties in support of Allenby’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force, Commander Samson even crediting the fall of Jeddah to his force’s ‘three inefficient rather antique seaplanes’. Certainly Raven II’s direct support of the operations at Yenbo under Feisal and Lawrence of Arabia proved decisive, the latter supplying her pilots with his sketches of the Turkish positions to steady their aim.

In fact, in Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence attributed the first signs of Turkish collapse to the Navy’s presence at Yenbo in December 1916:

‘Afterwards, old Dakhil Allah told me that he had guided the Turks down to rush Yenbo in the dark that they might stamp out Feisal’s army once and for all; but their hearts had failed them at the silence and the blaze of lighted ships from end to end of the harbour, with the eerie beams of the searchlights revealing the bleakness of the glacis they would have to cross. So they turned back: and that night, I believe, the Turks lost the war.’

Inevitably, perhaps, for such a long and active commission, Raven II did not escape the wrath of the enemy, a case in point being the 31 August 1916, when she was attacked by enemy aircraft at Port Said, prior to her work of in the Red Sea and the Hejaz coast - this was probably the first occasion on which an aircraft carrier was successfully attacked from the air: three German aeroplanes flew over the harbour and dropped 12 bombs, one of which struck Raven II just abaft the forecastle, killing three men and wounding an officer and five other crew. A few weeks earlier, on 9 August, Jenkins’ command had been attacked by another trio of enemy aircraft, but came through unscathed from five near bomb misses - his ‘smart work’ on the same occasion resulted in the salvaging of one of his seaplanes which had been downed by a Fokker.

Raven II continued to operate in the Red Sea, and in the Indian Ocean, through to the end of 1917, her aircraft carrying out valuable spotting work for the bombardment of the railway line at Wadi el Hesi by the French battleship Requin, among other achievements; see Commander C. R. Samson’s Fights and Flights for full details of Raven II and mention of Jenkins.

Described by Samson as ‘a very fine unemotional seaman, who in his quiet way would go anywhere or do anything’, Jenkins was awarded the D.S.C., and ended the War with an appointment aboard the battleship Commonwealth. He was awarded his Royal Naval Reserve Decoration in 1921 (London Gazette 1 July 1921 refers), and was advanced to Commander, R.N.R. in December of the following year.