A Collection of Medals to the Royal Naval Air Service and Armoured Car Squadrons

A Great War D.S.M. awarded to Petty Officer Mechanic G. Gardner, Royal Naval Air Service, awarded the D.S.M. and several Russian decorations for service with the Armoured Car Division in Russia

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (F.9891 P.O. Mech., R.N. Armd. Cars. Austria 1st July 1917) good very fine £2000-2500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the Royal Naval Air Service and Armoured Car Squadrons.

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D.S.M. London Gazette 30 November 1917.

George Gardner was born in Sydney, N.S.W. on 24 April 1876. He entered the R.N.A.S. as a Petty Officer Mechanic on 16 November 1915. He embarked for Russia on 1 December 1915 and served with Nos. 1 and 2 Armoured Car Squadrons. His official record of service states:

‘... Aug-Oct. 1916 On detached service. Kars base. Novr.-Decr. On detached service in Dobrudsha. Hirsova base. Decr. On detached service in Roumania. Braila. Jany. 1917. On detached service in Roumania. Galatz. 10th April. Awarded Silver “St. George Cross” for conspicuous bravery under fire on the Galatz Front. No.864169. 22nd May. Returned to Tiraspol Base. ? June. Left Tiraspol Base for service in Galicia. Telyache. ? August. Left Proskurov Base for Brovary Base. 3rd Nov. Awarded Distinguished Service Medal. ? August. Left Brovary for England on leave. 18.9.17 Arrived in England. 18.1.18. Transferred to M.G.C.’

George Gardner is mentioned in the following despatch of Commander Locker-Lampson:

‘I would also venture to bring to the notice of their Lordships the work of the following Chief Petty Officers and Petty Officers: C.P.O. John MacFarlane (killed) F.2863; P.O.M. John Harrison F.2893; George Gardner, F.9891; John Marshall McEwan (wounded) F.10029. These were volunteers who assisted Lieut.-Commr. Smiles to repair the roads under very heavy fire during the attack on Brzezany’.

He was additionally mentioned by Smiles:

‘For consistent good work during the whole of the expedition, both as a Cook and also when any heavy fatigue work was required. This man also volunteered for sniping when Colonel Balgramo asked for some good shots for the trenches’.

In The Czar’s British Squadron, by Perrett and Lord, the action at Brzezany, 1 July 1917, is described, ‘The cars were due to cross their start line at 09.55 and the infantry to go over the top five minutes later. Watched by Kerensky from a forward observation post, Wells Hood led out his squadron in the Rolls armoured. The cars gathered speed in a cutting and then burst out onto the wastes of No Man’s Land, Shells burst alongside the road ... bullets clanged off the armour, but within minutes they were level with the first line of enemy trenches and were enfilading them with their fire. ... While the Russian infantry came up Wells Hood protected the Corps’ left flank from interference, and then pressed on down the road to Brzezany until he found it blocked by a barbed wire and sandbag barricade. Smiles called for volunteers to go forward with him and remove the obstruction. He was joined by Chief Petty Officer MacFarlane, Leading Petty Officer Harrison and Petty Officers Gardner and McEwan, and together they crawled up the roadside ditch to the barricade, which was now under such shellfire that Locker Lampson wondered how any of them survived. Dodging shellbursts, they were able at length to dismantle the structure piece by piece, but in the process MacFarlane was killed and McEwan badly wounded. The cars passed through ...’ As the attack by the Russian infantry faltered, many of the men refused to go forward. The Czar’s British Squadron records, ‘A powerfully built Australian Petty Officer named Gardiner (sic), serving with one of the Maxim detachments, was so sickened by the spectacle that he launched a personal attack on the nearest platoon, bodily throwing a score of men over the parapet; they merely crawled to the sanctuary of shell holes’. It is quite likely that Australians ‘Gardiner’ and ‘Gardner’ are one and the same (The latter event is recorded in the diary of Petty Officer Mechanic N. E. Martin, R.N.A.S. - see lot 594).

Various official documents indicate he was awarded the Russian Cross of Bravery, 3rd Class; Cross of Bravery, 4th Class, No. 864169, and St. George Medal for Bravery, 4th Class. Sold with copied service papers and Admiralty papers, including Smiles’ report on the action of 1 July 1917.