Naval Medals from the Collection of the Late Jason Pilalas

The important Great War Naval intelligence K.C.M.G., C.B. group of five awarded to Admiral Sir Guy Gaunt, Royal Navy

The multi-talented Gaunt excelled in his wartime role as Naval Attaché in Washington D.C., his counter-espionage work costing the Germans dearly, not least his role in the notorious ‘Zimmermann Telegram’ affair

He had earlier won rapid promotion to Commander for his gallant exploits in Samoa at the turn of the century, when amidst civil unrest he defended the British Consulate and raised ‘Gaunt’s Brigade’ of irregulars: it’s a remarkable story, immaculately recounted of in the pages of his autobiography, The Yield of the Years

The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, K.C.M.G. Knight Commander’s neck badge and breast star, silver-gilt and enamels, some minor enamel chips; The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, C.B. (Civil) Companion’s breast badge, silver-gilt, hallmarked London 1915; British War and Victory Medals (Capt. G. R. A. Gaunt. R.N.); United States of America, Navy Distinguished Service Medal, gilt and enamel, the last four mounted as worn, generally good very fine (6) £2,400-£2,800

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

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K.C.M.G. London Gazette 20 September 1918:
‘To be an Ordinary Member of the Second Class, or Knight Commander, of the said Most Distinguished Order:

Captain Guy Reginald Archer Gaunt, R.N., C.B., C.M.G., late Naval Attaché to His Majesty’s Embassy at Washington.’

C.B. London Gazette 3 June 1918:

‘To be Additional Members of the Civil Division of the Third Class or Companions of the said Most Honourable Order:

Captain Guy Reginald Archer Gaunt, C.M.G., R.N.’

U.S.A. Distinguished Service Medal (Navy) London Gazette 29 April 1919.

Guy Reginald Archer Gaunt was born at Ballarat West, Victoria, Australia on 25 May 1869, and was educated at Melbourne Grammar School. It was intended he studied for the Law, but he pleaded with his father for a career at sea and was duly enrolled at H.M.S. Worcester, the training ship for officers of the merchant service. Having then served in clippers and obtained his Second Mate’s ticket, in addition to gaining an appointment as a Midshipman in the Royal Naval Reserve, he transferred, with the assistance of his brother, to the Royal Navy as a Lieutenant in October 1895.

Gaunt’s Brigade

Gaunt joined the three-masted sloop Swift in the Philippines in 1897, where he witnessed shocking scenes and executions, before removing to the Porpoise, also bound for the South Seas. And it was in this capacity that he came to play a memorable role in ongoing strife in Samoa, where local rebels, with German backing, were a threat to American and British interests. Apart from attending the British Consulate at Apia during a rebel attack, he raised and commanded ‘Gaunt’s Brigade’ of irregulars in subsequent operations. His autobiography describes in detail not a few encounters of the close kind, one such case being an attack on a rebel chief’s village at Malea:

‘I was last out of the village, with an enormous great Chief right on top of me, luckily as it turned out, for he masked the fire of the men who were potting at us. Just as he was towering above me ready to kill, I slewed around. He fired from his hip and missed me clean. I fired low, determined not to miss him, and being a rotten shot killed him stone dead on the spot. In a fraction of a second I was in the undergrowth, and without the slightest desire to win any medals legged it for the beach … ’

In due course, with a lull in operations, ‘Gaunt’s Brigade’ was disbanded, but he was presented with a sword by loyal Samoans who credited him with having saved the life of their King. Their Lordships of the Admiralty were equally impressed, for he was mentioned in despatches and promoted to Commander for ‘special services’ in June 1901.

Naval Intelligence: spooks, sleuths and that telegram

A posting on the China Sation at the time of the Russo-Japanese War ensued, as did his promotion to Captain in June 1907, but it was a summons to the Admiralty in the summer of 1914 that changed his life forever. He was invited by the First Sea Lord to take up the post of Naval Attaché in Washington D.C., and so, in May 1914, he departed for the United States. It was, Gaunt later explained, ‘work which was to bring me some of the most astounding adventures that ever befell any man in the Great War.’

As it happened, one of his first ports of call on arrival was the German Embassy, where he was introduced to the ambassador, Count von Bernstorff, and his two attachés, Captain Franz von Papen and Captain Karl Boy-Ed. All three would shortly be at odds with Gaunt, for the war was but weeks way. When the storm broke, one of his first missions was to try and prevent the departure of German liners from New York for use as raiders. That effort led to an early encounter with Franklin Roosevelt and represents the opening chapter of his genuinely fascinating wartime career, a clandestine sojourn described grippingly in the pages of The Yield of Your Years: from German agents and ‘sleuths’ trailing his every move to all the machinations one might expect of counter-espionage operations.

Caught up in the Lusitania story – his men are believed to have apprehended German agents who boarded the liner before her departure from New York on her final voyage in 1915 – and likewise in the loss of the Hampshire and Kitchener in 1916 – when he received intelligence of an Irish nationalist plot – Gaunt was rarely out of the picture. He was created C.M.G in the latter year.

One of his most important tasks was to counteract the effects of German propaganda in North America, and, in that respect, he gained prominence for his many successes. That prominence – particularly in Intelligence circles – was further enhanced by his subsequent appointment as a Commodore 1st Class and Liaison Officer to the United States of America.

Moving about the highest echelons of power Gaunt played a pivotal role in the ‘Zimmermann Telegram’ affair. Working closely with his London boss ‘Blinker’ Hall in Room 40 at the Admiralty, he helped persuade the President and his advisors that the intercepted telegram was genuine. The telegram, sent in January 1917 from Arthur Zimmermann, the German Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to his Mexican counterpart, was indeed genuine and its contents devastating for Germany: because, in the event of the Americans entering the war, it contained an offer of military support for Mexico to invade the southern states of the U.S.A. The British interception and decryption of the telegram was an intelligence triumph, and, in April 1917, the Americans finally entered the war.

Another great coup was orchestrating with Room 40 the eventual arrest of Captain Franz von Rintelen, a veteran field agent of the German Imperial Navy’s intelligence wing. Operating covertly in the then neutral United States, he had financed and encouraged strikes by anti-war labour unions, attempted a hostile takeover of the Du Pont organisation, and fire-bombed munitions ships and armaments factories.

Appointed C.B. in June, and K.C.M.G. in September 1918, Gaunt was advanced to Rear-Admiral in the following month. Then in February 1919, his service record was endorsed with a statement of gratitude from the Secretary of the United States Navy. It read:

‘The U.S. Navy Department desires to convey to the Admiralty its thanks and sincere appreciation of the services rendered by Rear-Admiral Gaunt during his tour of duty in Washington. The high professional ability and attainments of this officer were of the greatest value to the officers of the Navy Department in the many propositions that arose out of the war.’

Two months later, he was gazetted for the award of the American Distinguished Service Medal (Navy), and he was subsequently advanced on the Retired List to Vice-Admiral in July 1924 and to Admiral in February 1928.

Gaunt, who was elected to the House of Commons as a Tory M.P. for a Yorkshire seat in 1922, had to stand down on account of marital issues in 1926. Known to the public therefore as ‘the Admiral with a roving eye’, he nonetheless remained much respected within Naval intelligence circles. Some sources suggest he may even have been consulted by Ian Fleming, when the next great storm broke.

The Admiral died in Woking, Surrey in May 1953.

007

‘James Bond aficionados have spent years arguing about who might have been the model for Ian Fleming’s fictitious secret agent, yet there is an obvious candidate who never seems to be mentioned. This man was handsome, debonair, brilliantly effective, knew everybody who could make a difference, was ruthless, an expert shot, spoke several languages, served as an officer in the Royal Navy and at the time of his intelligence activities held the substantive rank of Commander, just like the fictitious Bond. His other qualification for the part he proved later in life when he was cited in a notorious divorce case that resulted in the failure of his own marriage, after which he married a woman nearly thirty years his junior with whom he had two daughters. The name is Gaunt, Guy Gaunt … ’

The ‘Will Turner Novels’ website, refers.