Naval Medals from the Collection of the Late Jason Pilalas

The Great War ‘Irish Rebellion’ D.S.C. group of four awarded to Lieutenant W. H. A. Bee, Royal Naval Reserve, who was awarded a D.S.C. and an M.I.D. for his command of H.M.T. Lord Heneage, which ship played a vital part in the capture of the German Auxiliary Cruiser Aud off the south-west coast of Ireland where she was due to rendezvous with Sir Roger Casement to deliver her cargo of 20,000 rifles, 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition and ten machine-guns to aid the imminent Easter Rising

Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R., hallmarked London 1918; 1914-15 Star (Lieut. W. H. A. Bee. R.N.R.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Lieut. W. H. A. Bee. R.N.R.) mounted for display, some contact wear, therefore nearly very fine (4) £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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D.S.C. London Gazette 27 June, 1917: The original recommendation submitted by the Vice-Admiral at Queenstown states:

‘Assisted in the capture of the S.S. Aud on 21/22 April 1916.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 21 April 1917.

The original recommendation states: ‘Capture of German auxiliary off coast of Ireland on 21 April 1915. Did good work in keeping the vessel in sight until she was brought to by the Bluebell.’

In April 1916, information had been received at the Admiralty that a landing of arms was to be expected on the west coast of Ireland for the Sinn Feiners, and that Sir Roger Casement was believed to be on his way to meet with the arms ship. Casement, the ex-British official who was the prime instigator of German supported rebellion, was bound for Ireland in U22 to rendezvous with the steamer Aud, a German ship disguised as the Norwegian steamer of the same name. The rendezvous where Aud had arranged to meet Casement's submarine was one mile north-west of Inishtooskert, an uninhabited island at the north-west end of Tralee Bay, Co. Kerry, and here the steamer, with her cargo of arms arrived in the late afternoon of 20 April, 1916. Here the Aud waited and waited but nothing happened. No submarine. No Casement. Finally, at 1.30 am, Aud anchored in the shadows of Inishtooskert to await the dawn of Good Friday.

Meanwhile, on the Thursday night Lieut-Commander Weisbach in U22 with Casement reached the Inishrooskert rendezvous, and from a distance sighted the dark outline of the anchored Aud, however, unfortunately for them, the submarine mistook this outline for a British destroyer and withdrew. Finally, Casement despairing of Aud's arrival acted independently and was landed with two companions on the beach by means of a small collapsible boat which had been secured to the submarine's upper deck. Early on Good Friday the deserted boat, wherein lay revolvers and ammunition was discovered by a local man and within hours Casement had been captured.

Meanwhile, earlier that morning the Aud was approached by the armed trawler Setter II (Skipper John Donaldson, R.N.R.) which came alongside and boarded. Unfortunately, Donaldson was bluffed by Lieut. Karl Spindler of the Aud and his subsequent search revealed only pots and pans as shown in the cargo manifest. Soon after 1 pm Spindler had another shock when he saw a small steamer approaching at speed with a gun on the forecastle. This was the armed trawler Lord Heneage, commanded not by a skipper, but by Lieutenant W. H. A. Bee, R.N.R., a 56 year-old veteran of the Merchant Service. Bee had learnt from Loop Head signal station that a steamer was hovering suspiciously about the entrance of Tralee Bay and flying the signal ‘Stop at once’ immediately gave chase to the Aud which had hurriedly weighed anchor and got under way to the westward in something of a panic.

The Aud was fleeting for her life and exceeding the limit of safety. 'More steam!' ordered Spindler. 'Captain,' replied his Chief Engineer, 'if we go on like this the boilers will burst. The steam is long past the red mark.' She was doing two or three knots more than Lord Heneage so that whilst the latter opened fire at long range, nothing could be done to stop the fugitive heading clear of land into the wide Atlantic. However, at 4.30 pm, a signal from Lord Heneage was received by H.M.S. Zinnia and H.M.S. Bluebell and these two ships hastened towards the spot from different points of the compass. Bluebell at last sighted the Aud and at 6.15 pm caused her to stop and ordered her to proceed to Queenstown. Spindler complied but not before testing the patience of Lieut. Hood in Bluebell who was compelled to drop a shell over the German's bow. Next day, however, when these two vessels were just outside Queenstown Harbour the Aud suddenly stopped engines and lowered boats into which every German clambered after which followed an explosion, the gun-runner bursting into flames and fragments till she sank. Spindler had used the bombs and fuses which had been destined for the Sinn Feiners to destroy his own vessel. The associated capture of Sir Roger Casement is well documented and resulted in his being removed to London, tried and hanged for treason.

Lieutenant William Henry Askew Bee was born in Liverpool on 26 April 1860 and served more than 36 years at sea. He joined the service in 1884 as a Deck Hand and by 1888 passed as Master of Home Trade Passenger Ships. From 1890 he served consistently as Master on more than a dozen ships. Following the Aud incident, Lieutenant Bee served with Galway Trawlers in mine-sweeping and patrol and rescue operations (Swept Channels refers). He retired after the war to live in Barrow-in-Furness and died on 9 March 1940.

Sold with two large files of research including detailed articles on Lieutenant Bee’s exploits published in the OMRS Journal and Medal News.