Naval Medals from the Collection of the Late Jason Pilalas

The fine Second War G.M. and Lloyd’s Bravery Medal group of five awarded to Captain D. A. MacDonald, Merchant Navy, who returned to rescue survivors from his unescorted convoy after it was attacked by the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper in February 1941
George Medal, G.VI.R. (Captain Donald Arthur Macdonald); 1939-1945 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939-45; Lloyd's Medal for Bravery at Sea (Captain D. A. Macdonald, S.S. "Blairatholl". 12th February 1941) a couple of edge bruises and a vertical edge cut to the last, otherwise very fine or better (5) £4,000-£5,000

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

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G.M. London Gazette 14 April 1942:

‘The ship was in a convoy which was attacked by a heavy German cruiser. The Master [MacDonald] manoeuvred his ship clear of the others and laid a smoke screen between himself and the enemy. He returned later and picked up no less than eighty-five survivors. Captain MacDonald, by his skilful seamanship and his courage in returning to the scene of action at the first moment possible, saved the lives of many men.’

The above citation has been extracted from a joint citation with his Second Engineer, who was awarded the M.B.E., and a 16-year-old Ordinary Seaman, who received the B.E.M.

Lloyd’s Medal for Bravery at Sea Lloyd’s List & Shipping Gazette 14 August 1942:

‘A convoy was attacked by a heavy German cruiser. Captain MacDonald manoeuvred his ship away from the others and laid a smoke screen between himself and the enemy. He returned at the first possible moment and rescued 85 survivors. By his able seamanship and his gallantry in promptly returning to the scene of the action, he saved many lives.’

Donald Arthur MacDonald was decorated for his services as Master of the S.S. Blairatholl in convoy SLS-64, bound from Egypt to the U.K. The unescorted convoy stood no chance when intercepted by the Admiral Hipper on 12 February 1941, the enemy’s armament accounting for seven of 19 merchantmen before she turned for Brest on account of her own rapidly diminishing fuel stocks.

MacDonald would later expand on his experiences on that occasion, in a letter he sent to one of his old convoy commanders, Commodore C. G. Illingworth, R.N.R., in September 1941:

‘ … Of the surviving vessels, we alone did not abandon ship, that is of those vessels that were present during the complete incident, and trusted to mobility at a little better than 9 knots, a smoke screen and luck. So we were not hit, although we were shelled, and gradually manoeuvred behind a veil of burning ships to eastward of the raider, and onto the early sun, where we watched the whole finish of the engagement from a vantage point. As he went off to the N.W. we followed him back to the spot and by ploughing our way through all kinds of wreckage, managed in two and a half hours to pick up 86 survivors. We passed a Greek vessel and two British vessels abandoned and their crews endeavouring to get return to their ships. These ships were intact and had been abandoned in a flagrant case of premature abandonment. Having reboarded they all set off to the S.E. for Madeira and no one made any effort to assist in the rescue work. This is apparent, for we were fully ten miles to the northward amongst the wreckage, while they were underway to Madeira, and no one came near us. My vessel alone made no effort to abandon, and we alone made any effort to seek survivors, and spent hours in a danger spot, picking up all we could find … ’

Yet, at the time of writing, neither MacDonald nor any of his crew had been rewarded for their gallant rescue operation. Instead, however, as he confirmed in his letter, one ship’s Master, who abandoned his undamaged vessel, had received the George Medal. The Commodore patently took MacDonald’s observations to heart, for in the fullness of time he too received a genuinely deserved George Medal.

Details of his subsequent wartime career remain unknown, but the Blairatholl was lost after a collision with a Norwegian vessel in the Atlantic convoy SC-110 on 1 December 1942.