Naval Medals from the Collection of the Late Jason Pilalas (Part I)

The Great War Memorial Plaque to Major F. J. W. Harvey, Royal Marine Light Infantry, who was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross aboard H.M.S. Lion at the battle of Jutland
Memorial Plaque (Francis John William Harvey) with Buckingham Palace enclosure and card envelope, extremely fine £5,000-£7,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Naval Medals from the Collection of the Late Jason Pilalas.

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Victoria Cross London Gazette 15 September 1916:

‘Whilst mortally wounded and almost the only survivor after the explosion of an enemy shell in “Q” gunhouse, with great presence of mind and devotion to duty ordered the magazine to be flooded, thereby saving the ship. He died shortly afterwards.’

Francis John William Harvey was born in Upper Sydenham, Kent, on 29 April 1873, to Commander John William Francis Harvey and Elizabeth Edwards Lavington Harvey (née Penny). In 1884, aged 11, he moved with his family to Southsea where he attended Portsmouth Grammar School, achieving excellent academic results.

After leaving school, Harvey was accepted by both the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, graduating in 1892 and the following year was made a full lieutenant, joining H.M.S. Wildfire for his first seagoing commission.
After just a year at sea, he was sent on gunnery courses at H.M.S. Excellent, qualifying in 1896 as an instructor first class in naval gunnery.
Between 1898 and 1904, he spent much of his time attached to the Channel Fleet, practising and instructing in gunnery, and on 28 January 1900, he was promoted to Captain.

In 1903 he was posted aboard H.M.S. Royal Sovereign, teaching gunnery to the heavy units of the Channel Fleet. In 1910, Harvey became Instructor of Gunnery at Chatham Dockyard and the following year was promoted to Major, a report commenting: "The degree of efficiency in the Gunnery Establishment at Chatham is very high, both as regards general training and attention to detail. Great credit is due to all concerned but particularly to Major F. J. W. Harvey”. On the strength of this report, he was posted as senior marine officer aboard H.M.S. Lion, the 27,000-ton flagship of the British battlecruiser fleet, commanded by Rear-Admiral David Beatty. H.M.S. Lion had eight 13.5-inch guns and Harvey was stationed in “Q” turret, directing their operation and fire.

After action in the Battle of Heligoland Bight, Lion was badly damaged during the Battle of Dogger Bank and returned to Rosyth for repairs where Harvey remained for the whole of 1915 and the first five months of 1916, continuing his gunnery training and preparing for major fleet action. He wrote to a fellow officer in H.M.S. Orion describing his experiences: “As to the fighting in a turret, one doesn't suffer any discomfort and my chief feeling has been of 'curiosity' mixed with the idea that whoever else is coming to grief, oneself will be all right. I am under no delusion though, that if a projectile does hit one's turret it will in all probability come right in and send one to glory.”

His preparations for action came to fruition on 31 May 1916, when the British fleet sailed to engage the main body of the German High Seas Fleet at the Battle of Jutland. During the battle, H.M.S. Lion was hit by nine shells from the German battlecruiser, Lutzow. One shell struck “Q” turret, where arvey was at Action Stations, and punched a piece of the 9-inch face plate into the turret before detonating, blowing off the armoured roof of the turret and starting a fire. The initial explosion killed or wounded everyone stationed in the gun house itself, but Harvey, despite severe wounds and burns, gave orders down the voice pipe for the magazine doors to be closed and the magazine compartments to be flooded, an action which would normally prevent the cordite in the magazines detonating. The magazine was consequently flooded and locked up within minutes of the hit; however, there were still ready charges in the gun room and gun barrels. Many crewmen remained in the shell room and magazine below and the fire, which was thought to have been extinguished, gained strength and ignited the remaining cordite charges, setting off a large explosion that killed all the men in the vicinity, the flame of the explosion reaching as high as the top of the ship's masts.

Other ships of the battlecruiser fleet were not so lucky; at about the same time as Harvey's death, H.M.S. Indefatigable, H.M.S. Queen Mary, and Rear-Admiral Horace Hood's flagship, H.M.S. Invincible were destroyed with a combined loss of 3320 lives. All three ships were lost due to magazine explosions similar to the one narrowly avoided on H.M.S. Lion.

In the aftermath of the battle, Major Harvey was buried at sea with full military honours alongside the other 98 fatal casualties on H.M.S. Lion. His bravery in the face of certain death did not go unnoticed as he was mentioned by name in Admiral Jellicoe's post-battle dispatch and he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. His widow Ethel was presented with the award at Buckingham Palace by King George V on 15 September 1916.

Winston Churchill later commented: "In the long, rough, glorious history of the Royal Marines there is no name and no deed which in its character and consequences ranks above this."

Harvey’s Victoria Cross group of medals is held by the Royal Marines Museum.