Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Great War Dover Patrol D.S.M. awarded to Chief Yeoman of the Signals R. Douglas, Royal Navy, who was almost certainly decorated as a result of his part in the Zeebrugge and Ostend operations of 1918

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (203927 R. Douglas, Yeo. Sigs., “Whirlwind”, Dover Patrol, 1918), contact marks, better than very fine £700-900

D.S.M. London Gazette 20 September 1918:

‘For services in monitors and destroyers of the Dover Patrol between 1 January and 30 June 1918.’

Robert Douglas was born at Selkirk in November 1883 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in February 1900. A Leading Signalman aboard the destroyer H.M.S. Recruit by the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he briefly attended the shore establishment Pembroke in the new year before removing to the cruiser Phaeton as a recently promoted Yeoman of the Signals in February 1915. He remained similarly employed until March 1917, and was consequently present in the Gallipoli operations and at the battle of Jutland. In the interim, on 4 May 1916, while in the company with the Galatea, Phaeton witnessed the destruction of the zeppelin L-7, when one of former’s 6-inch shells found its mark.

The period March 1917 to March 1918 witnessed Douglas enjoying further seagong appointments in the cruiser Blake and the flotilla leader Kempenfelt, but it was for his final wartime commission aboard the Dover Patrol destroyer Whirlwind, from April 1918 until the end of hostilities, that he was awarded the D.S.M., almost certainly for his part in the famous Zeebrugge and Ostend operations. On the former occasion Whirlwind accompanied Vice-Admiral Keyes’ flagship Warwick, leading the port column of his force out of Dover, and assisted in the rescue of assorted men from the blockship Intrepid when they emerged from the harbour, past the mole, in a cutter. Whirlwind was again in close company to Keyes’ flagship at Ostend in the second attack launched against that port on 10 May 1918, when the latter struck a mine and had to be taken in tow. The Admiral’s memoirs state:

‘I gave directions for the Velox to be lashed alongside, the Whirlwind to take Warwick in tow, and the Trident to look out eastward, to give warning if the enemy destroyers were sighted coming from Zeebrugge. I gave orders that if they appeared, the Warwick was to be slipped at once, and the other three vessels were to engage them. As the Warwick was in considerable danger of sinking, all the rescued Vindictive’s crew - except Crutchley [who won a V.C. for his deeds that night], who thought he might be useful to act as First Lieutenant - were transferred to the Velox, and I sent Jackson, too, to help look after the wounded. He said as he left: “Is this what you call a quiet night, you told me we should probably only be spectators in the offing.”

Progress was very slow, and as the effective range of the Ostend guns was from 20,000 to 40,000 yards, it was a long time before we were out of their range. A much more unpleasant prospect, however, would have been the advent of the nine destroyers, which I had been hoping to meet in darkness, but which would have overwhelmed us in daylight.

I then sent the Velox back to Dover with the wounded. I wished afterwards that I had gone in her, but I did not like to leave my wounded Warwick. At first we made fairly good progress in tow of the Whirlwind, with another destroyer lashed alongside, but the Warwick had made so much water, that I thought it advisable to get salvage tugs with pumps alongside, in case of the other bulkheads going.’

In the event, Warwick and Whirlwind made it to Dover, and Douglas’ captain, Commander R. St. P. Perry, R.N., was awarded the D.S.O., the London Gazette of 29 August 1918 citing his handling of his command ‘with skill and decision, performing a most valuable service with difficult conditions.’ Interestingly, too, Lieutenant A. H. Caldwell, R.N., of the Whirlwind, was awarded a D.S.C. in the same London Gazette that announced the award of the D.S.M. to Douglas, evidence indeed that his crucial role as Yeoman of the Signals in these two famous operations, not least that against Ostend, was the catalyst for him being so honoured.

Douglas was still aboard the Whirlwind in early August 1918, when she was charged with conveying H.M. the King to Calais from Dover, but was transferred from her to the flotilla leader Parker - Commander Perry’s new command - in April 1919. He was finally pensioned ashore as a Chief Yeoman of the Signals in June 1922.