Naval Medals from the Collection of the Late Jason Pilalas

The unique and outstanding Great War Zeebrugge-Ostend D.S.C. and Bar group of six awarded to Captain C. F. B. Bowlby, Royal Navy, a founding father of Coastal Forces, he was awarded the D.S.C. and Bar for his gallant command of Coastal Motor Boat (C.M.B.) 26B in the Zeebrugge and second Ostend Raids in April-May 1918, the only officer so honoured.

And he later added the C.B.E. to his accolades as a senior operative of M.I.6’s ‘Inter-Services Liaison Department’ in the last war, when recommended for his ‘outstanding leadership and skill in organising special operations in the campaigns fought in Africa, Sicily, Italy and the Balkans’; likewise the C.M.G. upon his retirement in 1956 for intelligence work during the ‘Cold War’

Distinguished Service Cross, George V, with Second Award Bar, the reverse privately engraved ‘Lieut. C. F. B. Bowlby, R.N., 23rd April 1918, Zeebrugge’, the reverse of the Bar privately engraved ‘May. 9-10. 1918.’; 1914-15 Star (S. Lt. C. F. B. Bowlby, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Lieut. C. F. B. Bowlby. R.N.); Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937, mounted court-style, very fine and better (6) £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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Sotheby’s, July 1998.

C.M.G. London Gazette 2 January 1956.

C.B.E. London Gazette 3 July 1945: ‘For excellent service in the organisation of special operations in the Near East.’

The original recommendation states:

‘Captain Bowlby has, since 1941, been in command of the intelligence organisation in the Mediterranean area which has been responsible for obtaining from the enemy, and enemy occupied territory, much important naval intelligence which has been used operationally to the discomfiture of the enemy.

He is responsible for building this organisation up from zero and for maintaining a large network of intelligence agents which operated behind enemy lines in the Desert, Tunisia, Italy, Greece, and other parts of the Mediterranean area. The award of the C.B.E. to this officer is highly recommended.’

D.S.C. London Gazette 23 July 1918: ‘In recognition of distinguished services during the operations against Zeebrugge and Ostend on the night of 22-23 April 1918:

Lieut. Cuthbert F. B. Bowlby, R.N.

In command of a coastal motor boat. Showed great coolness under very heavy fire, stopping his boat abreast the seaplane sheds at a range of 60 to 70 yards, and continued firing, making numerous hits.’

D.S.C. Second Award Bar London Gazette 23 August 1918: ‘I have the honour to bring to the notice of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty the names of the following officers and men who performed distinguished service in the second blocking operation against Ostend on the night of 9-10 May 1918:

Lieut. Cuthbert F. B. Bowlby, D.S.C., R.N.

In command of a coastal motor boat, and escorted Vindictive close up to the entrance, then ran ahead, and finding one of the piers, fired a torpedo at it. The water being shallow and the range short, the explosion shook the boat so severely as to damage her engines and open up her seams. She commenced to sink, but by his presence of mind he got the leak stopped, engines going again, and brought his boat out of the fire zone, where, he was taken in tow by H.M.S. Broke.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 28 August 1918: ‘Ostend blocking operations 9-10 May 1918.’

Cuthbert Francis Bond Bowlby was born in Buckinghamshire on 23 August 1895, the son of the Rev. Henry Thomas Bowlby, and was educated at the Royal Naval Colleges Osborne and Dartmouth.

A Midshipman serving in the battle cruiser H.M.S. New Zealand on the outbreak of war, he quickly saw action at the battles of Heligoland Bight in August 1914 and Dogger Bank in January 1915, in which latter month be became a Temporary Sub. Lieutenant.

Zeebrugge and Ostend, April and May, 1918

In July 1916, Bowlby removed to a new ‘special service’ appointment on the Thames, namely to conduct early trials in prototype Coastal Motor Boats (C.M.Bs). Duly qualified in the type, he was advanced to Lieutenant and took command of C.M.B 26B in May 1917, and it was in this capacity that he was awarded his unique D.S.C. and Bar for the Zeebrugge raid on 22-23 April 1918 and the second Ostend raid on 9-10 May 1918. On the former occasion, he ‘showed great coolness under a very heavy fire’, when he stopped C.M.B. 26B 60-70 yards off the seaplane sheds, which he then engaged with accurate fire. On the latter occasion, as recounted by Sir Roger Keyes in his relevant despatch, Bowlby escorted Vindictive close to the entrance, and then ran ahead, for he had caught an all-important sighting of one of the piers:

‘Escorting Vindictive on her final approaches to the canal were two fifty-five-foot Coastal Motor Boats, 25B (Lieutenant R. H. McBean) and 26B (Lieutenant C. F. B. Bowlby). Their orders were to proceed ahead of Vindictive until within sight of the canal mouth, whereupon they would drop calcium light buoys and fire flare rockets to burst above and illuminate the canal entrance.
In thick fog this was much easier said than done, and Lieutenant Bowlby proceeded with a commendable caution which with anything other than damned bad luck should have been duly rewarded. For a moment, in fact, he thought it would be so rewarded, for there was a momentary gap in the fog and he glimpsed the eastern pier head at the very moment when his boat, his guns and his torpedo-tube pointed exactly at it. He pressed the button, discharged the torpedo and increased speed, with the result that he was directly above his torpedo when it hit either the bottom or a submerged object and exploded, blowing C.M.B. 26B several feet up into the air. She did not sink immediately, but her seams were badly parted, her communication system wrecked, and her signal and lighting arrangements reduced to chaos. Lieutenant Bowlby turned her away and took her slowly to seaward, with the port engine firing on six cylinders and the starboard engine bone dry, for the connections had burst and the engine casing was empty. C.M.B. 26B made nearly three miles before the port engine seized up and she was eventually towed home … ’

Subsequent career – Naval spook for the S.I.S.

Bowlby was appointed a Flag Lieutenant in the battleship Glory at the war’s end and went on to enjoy a succession of seagoing appointments, including tours of duty in the battleships Valiant and Hood. So, too, steady promotion to Commander in June 1930. He also held his first major command, the aircraft carrier Hermes.

Soon after the renewal of hostilities, however, he was borne on the books of President ‘for duties outside the Admiralty’, the first indication of his new-found career in the Secret Intelligence Service (S.I.S.). As revealed by the historian Nigel West in his related history of M.I. 6, Bowlby was to remain likewise employed until 1955. He had been personally selected by Stewart Menzies, then head of the organisation, to establish its credentials in the Middle East; as revealed by a captured enemy intelligence report after the war, his new appointment was duly registered by the Reich Security Agency.

In his capacity as an Assistant Chief Staff Officer – or ‘G’ Officer in spook’s parlance – Bowlby was to spend three years in Egypt, running the Cairo post, where he oversaw the creation of the Inter Service Liaison Department (I.S.L.D.), prior to establishing similar posts at Algiers and in Italy. The latter, based at Bari, was a joint S.I.S. and S.O.E. venture and served as a springboard for operations in the Balkans.

Advanced to Captain in May 1941, and awarded the C.B.E. in July 1945, Bowlby joined the Foreign Office at the war’s end, thereby extending his career as an S.I.S. operative. On stepping down for a final time at the end of 1955, he was awarded the C.M.G., a likely indication of him having been involved in the machinations of the Cold War. Intriguingly, Harold MacMillan wrote to congratulate him personally on his award, ‘I know how well it was deserved.’

Captain Bowlby, who retired to Bramshaw, Hampshire, died on 31 May 1969.