The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection

A Royal Humane Society Medal in Silver awarded to Lieutenant Aubrey A. D. Grey, Royal Navy, for gallantly saving the life of a fellow officer following the sinking of the destroyer H.M.S. Partridge, 12 December 1917 - Lieutenant Grey was subsequently awarded the Stanhope Gold Medal for 1919 for this action

Royal Humane Society, small silver medal (successful) (Lieut. Aubrey A. D. Grey, R.N. 12 Dec. 1917) with silver buckle on ribbon, lacquered, nearly extremely fine £400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection.

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Aubrey Arthur Douglas Grey was born on 4 September 1894. He entered the Royal Navy in September 1913 and was appointed a Midshipman in August 1914, a Sub Lieutenant in June 1916 and an Acting Lieutenant in November 1917. During December 1914-February 1916 he served on the battleship Bellerophon. Later in 1916 he was posted to the destroyer Partridge.

In late 1917 the Partridge was one of a number of ships, based at Lerwick in the Shetland Islands, being used to escort convoys to and from Norway. On 11 December 1917 the destroyer left port in company with the destroyer Pellew and four armed trawlers, escorting a convoy of six merchant ships. At 11.45 a.m. on 12 December the convoy was S.W. of Bjorne Fjord when enemy ships were sighted to the north. The convoy was ordered to scatter and the Partridge and the Pellew prepared to engage the enemy in the form of four destroyers. The Partridge was quickly hit, and with her main steam-pipe severed was rendered helpless and a sitting target. After being hit by a torpedo her Captain (Lt. Cdr. R. H. Ransome) gave orders for her to be abandoned.

Despite being ordered to abandon ship, Lieutenants Grey and Walters were determined to continue the fight. Manning a torpedo tube they fired a torpedo which hit an enemy destroyer but failed to explode. Soon afterwards Lieutenant Grey was wounded in the thigh. The two Lieutenants then made for a boat but this capsized casting both into the water. Lieutenant Grey, although wounded, then performed an unselfish act of life saving; his R.H.S. citation reading:

‘During action on the 12th December, 1917, Lieut. Grey jumped into the water to the help of Lieut. Walters who was exhausted, and although badly wounded in the leg, swam with him for more than a quarter of a mile and placed him on the only vacant place on a raft. Seeing that his own added weight would endanger the raft, he then swam away and was eventually picked up by a German destroyer in a very exhausted state. There was a heavy sea running at the time and the weather intensely cold.’ (R.H.S. Case No. 44,748). For this gallant act of life saving, Lieutenant Grey was awarded the Royal Humane Society’s Silver Medal and was subsequently awarded the Society’s Stanhope Gold Medal in 1919 for this action.

The abandoned Partridge was hit by a further two torpedoes and quickly sank. The Pellew in a very battered state was the sole survivor of the convoy.

Grey remained a prisoner-of-war of the Germans until the end of the war, after which he resumed his naval career, becoming a Lieutenant-Commander in December 1925. He was placed on the Retired List with the rank of Commander on 16 November 1937. With the onset of war in 1939 he was serving in the Torpedo Development Organisation at R.N.T.F. Greenock and so was exempt from immediate mobilisation. He was later re-employed by the Royal Navy, 1943-50.

With copied service papers and other research.