The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection

Pair: Sub Lieutenant O. P. Powell, Royal Navy, killed in action when the destroyer H.M.S. Verulam was mined and sunk in the Gulf of Finland, in operations against the Russian Bolsheviks, 3 September 1919
British War and Victory Medals (S. Lt., R.N.); Memorial Plaque (Owen Philip Powell) this last in card envelope, extremely fine (3) £300-350

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

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Owen Philip Powell was born on 24 February 1898, the son of Owen Markham Powell and Harriet Powell of Harmer Green, Welwyn, Hertfordshire. Owen Philip Powell was educated at Eton, 1912-16. He gained a special entry into the Royal Naval Training Establishment on 15 September 1916 and on 15 January 1917 he was appointed a Midshipman. Powell’s first seagoing service was aboard the battleship H.M.S. Warspite, February 1917-June 1918, being promoted to Sub Lieutenant on 15 May 1918. On 22 June 1918 he was posted to the ‘Admiralty V Class’ destroyer H.M.S. Verulam.

During 1919 H.M.S. Verulam was part of a squadron of ships operating against the Russian Bolsheviks in the Baltic Sea. On the night of 3 September 1919, when off Seskaer Island in the Gulf of Finland, the ship struck a mine and sank. The bodies of eight officers and men of the Verulam were washed ashore near Styrsudd (or Stirs) Point and were buried on a hill among pinewoods, a quarter of a mile from the sea. Powell’s body was one of three that could be identified. His name is also commemorated on the Archangel Memorial. With copied service paper and other research.