Medals from the Rob Campbell Collection relating to Clevedon, Somerset

Family group:

Three: Lieutenant The 6th Baron Teignmouth, Royal Marine Engineers, late Indian Public Works Department
British War Medal 1914-20 (Lieut. The Hon. H. A. Shore. R.M.) surname partially officially corrected; Defence Medal; Delhi Durbar 1911, mounted for display, good very fine

Five: Major The Honourable Lionel Shore, 2nd (King Edward VII’s Own) Gurkhas, killed in action near Arezzo, Italy, 20 July 1944
1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, mounted for display, good very fine

A Second War 1944 ‘Motor Torpedo Boat’ D.S.C. and Second Award Bar group of six awarded to Lieutenant The 7th Baron Teignmouth, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, a talented and aggressive MTB commander who met with success in the Mediterranean, Adriatic and the English Channel. Serving as part of the 20th Flotilla he commanded MTB 298 as part of a two boat attack on the stranded German cruiser Niobe, and her attendant tug, off Silba Island, in the Adriatic, 21 December 1943. Using his torpedoes to good effect he also had a hand in the sinking of two schooners and an F-lighter during his time in the Mediterranean and the Adriatic.

Lord Teignmouth returned to the UK in May 1944, and served with the 30th Flotilla as part of the Nore Command. He commanded the 2nd Division of the flotilla, and in attacks under his command at least 1 merchant vessel and 1 R-boat were sunk, whilst 3 R-boats were damaged. After the war he worked in London as a successful fashion designer
Distinguished Service Cross, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated ‘1944’, hallmarks for London 1943, with Second Award Bar, reverse officially dated ‘1944’; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, 1 clasp, France and Germany; Africa Star, 1 clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf, mounted for display, with six related miniature awards, good very fine (14) £3,000-£4,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Rob Campbell Collection relating to Clevedon, Somerset.

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Hugh Aglionby, 6th Baron Teignmouth was born in July 1881, and was the eldest son of the Fifth Baron Teignmouth, of Mount Elton, Clevedon. He was educated at Wellington College and Cooper’s Hill (Royal Indian Engineering College). Lord Teignmouth was employed as an assistant engineer with the Public Works Department in Madras, India, in 1902. He retired due to ill health in 1917, and upon his return to the UK was commissioned as a Temporary Lieutenant in the Royal Marine Engineers, 8 October 1918.

Lord Teignmouth served at Fort Southwick, near Porstmouth, 29 October 1918 - 13 January 1919. He was discharged in January 1919, and he succeeded his father to become the 6th Baron Teignmouth in February 1926. Appointed JP in 1940, Lord Teignmouth also served as a County Councillor for Somerset, 1946-1950, and as District Commissioner for the Boy Scouts Association for North Somerset, 1939-1950. He died in August 1964.


The Honourable Lionel Charles Frederick Shore was born in January 1918, and was eldest son of the 6th Baron Teignmouth. He was educated at Wellington College and Sandhurst. Shore was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in January 1938. He transferred to the 1st Battalion, 2nd (King Edward VII’s Own) Gurkhas in April 1939, and served with the Battalion throughout it’s tour of Persia, Iraq, Cyprus, North Africa and Italy.

Shore advanced to Lieutenant in January 1940, and ultimately to Temporary Major. He was killed in action by mortar fire, 20 July 1944, whilst commanding ‘D’ Company on the start line for an attack at Monte Prusso near Arezzo, Italy. His obituary, which appeared in The Times, gives the following:

‘During the North African campaign he commanded the machine-gun company of the 7th Indian Infantry Brigade, and was wounded at El Akarit [6 April 1943]. He managed, however, by taking “French leave” from the convalescent camp, to rejoin in time for the final mopping up at Tunis. At Cassino he unhesitatingly gave up his independent command, of which he had good reason to be proud, in order to serve his regiment, and was an inspiration to his company then and in subsequent advances. Like all who have been privileged to serve in these crack regiments, never ceased to sing the praises of his men, and in one of his last letters he told how, during the height of the fighting at Cassino, “the quality and stamina of the Gurkhas really stand out under these almost unbearable conditions. They never for one instant lose their wonderful bearing and discipline, and remain cheerful the whole time. We have troops of all nationalities here, but the Gurkha beats the lot.”

His brigadier writes: - “Bunny was killed in a moment of victory of quite considerable importance which he and his company had entirely won. He had always done very well, but latterly he had done superlatively, and was a brilliant company commander. His courage, dash, and leadership were bywords in the battalion and in the brigade. I can truthfully say he was sans peur et sans reproche, and very much a 2nd Gurkha, a first-class sportsman and soldier.”

Major The Honourable Lionel Shore is buried in Arezzo War Cemetery, Italy.


D.S.C. London Gazette 2 May 1944:
‘For courage, resource and devotion to duty in H.M. Ships Quilliam, Queenborough, Raider, Ilex and Light Coastal Craft in operations against the enemy.’

D.S.C. Second Award Bar London Gazette 28 November 1944.
The original recommendation states: ‘This Officer has led the second division of the 30th M.T.B. Flotilla in four successful engagements, with great skill and courage, resulting in the sinking of one merchant vessel (10.8.44) and damage or sinking two R-boats (23.7.44 and 20.8.44). In other minor engagements he has shown the greatest coolness and skill in attempting to bring E-boats to close action.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 23 January 1945 (originally recommended for the D.S.C.):
‘H.M. Ships [including Shore’s M.T.B. 474] made a gallant though unsuccessful attack on a convoy of seven or eight enemy ships off Ijmuiden on the night of the 1st November 1944. Very good work was done in bringing M.T.B. 467, which was severely damaged, back to port.’

The original recommendation states: ‘For outstanding coolness and leadership in action against a heavily armed enemy force on 1/2 November. This officer as Senior Officer of the unit displayed courage and leadership of a high order. He so handled his force that he was able to press home a zone torpedo attack under heavy and accurate gunfire in conditions of good visibility to the closest possible range, thereby enabling the unit to sink a large enemy trawler. During the subsequent withdrawal and passage back, in rough weather conditions, with first one and then two boats disabled he exhibited leadership of a high order, towing M.T.B. 471 clear of the enemy’s gunfire.’

Frederick Maxwell Aglionby, 7th Baron Teignmouth was born in Dublin Ireland, in December 1920, and was the youngest son of the 6th Baron Teignmouth. He was brought up at the family home of Brownsbarn in Co. Kilkenny, and educated at Wellington College. After school he started to study commercial art in London, only to volunteer for service as a Rating with the Royal Navy in September 1939. Lord Teignmouth was posted to the destroyer H.M.S. Broke for convoy escort duties in the Atlantic, in June 1940. He was commissioned in March 1941, and the following month was posted to join a Motor Torpedo Boat flotilla in the Mediterranean.

Lord Teignmouth served along the North African coast to the end of the desert campaign, and was ‘in Tobruk when it fell, but escaped and took part in all the coastal operations from El Alamein to Tunis.’ (copied newspaper cutting included in lot refers). He was appointed to the command of M.T.B. 298, as part of the newly commissioned 20th Flotilla, in August 1943. Lord Teignmouth quickly achieved a reputation for dash and ship-handling in a score of fierce inshore actions.

The 20th Flotilla was engaged in the Salerno landings in September 1943, and the surrender of the off-shore islands in the Bay of Naples - Capri, Ischia, Procida and Ventotene:

‘It was after the surrender of Ventotene on 8/9 September that two boats of 20th Flotilla, 298 (Lt The Hon F. Shore) with 289 (Barnsdale), were sent to attempt a landing of agents on the mainland in the Gulf of Gaeta. During the passage they encountered an enemy convoy consisting of several F-lighters, Siebel ferries and R-boats moving along the coast. Shore immediately attacked the largest F-lighter, and both his torpedoes hit and destroyed the target, which blew up with the ammunition it was carrying. It was the first torpedo sinking by a boat from the 20th Flotilla, and a very rare success for torpedo attack on F-lighters by any of the flotillas at this time.

Shortly after this, Shore was given another task, being sent to the island of Ponza where Intelligence reported that Mussolini was being held, and if possible to bring him off and hand him over to the Allies. Unfortunately he had already been moved to Sardinia.’ (Mediterranean MTBs At War, L. C. Reynolds and H. F. Cooper, refers)

The end of the year found Shore operating in the Adriatic with the 20th Flotilla. He played a prominent role in the sinking of the German Cruiser Niobe:

‘For months the Partisans had been troubled by intervention in their landings and patrols by what CCF later described as a ‘hoary but agile old cruiser’ with heavy armament and which naturally constituted a considerable threat to the Allied light forces as well as to the Partisans. The MTBs had sought her for weeks but had so far not found her. She had been built before the First World War as a German light cruiser, the Niobe. When she was passed to the Yugoslav Navy after the surrender in 1919, they renamed her Dalmacija. In 1941 she was taken over by the Italians, but since 8 November 1943 the Germans had returned to her original name and she was the Niobe again, working out of Pola to the north.

In Komiza news was received on 21 December from Intelligence sources that Niobe was aground on the south-west tip of Silba Island (not far from Zara), and that tugs were trying to salvage her.... Lancaster [Lieutenant J. D. ‘Butch’ Lancaster, D.S.C.] set off immediately with two boats: 298 (Shore) of the 20th, and 226 of the 24th, temporarily commanded by Lt. P. Hyslop. They made a fast passage northward outside all the main islands at 25 knots (they had about 90 miles to cover from Vis) and approached Silba through the narrow channel between Skarda and Ist, arriving at 0100 Lancaster slowed to 4 knots to take stock of the situation, and sighted the cruiser surrounded by tugs and E-boats. Using silenced engines they crept in to 400 yds, and fired their four torpedoes. There was some inaccurate small-arms fire from the attending boats, but the cruiser was hit by the two torpedoes, and the tug Parenzo alongside her was also destroyed. The Niobe was a total loss and played no further part in the war.

The two MTBs slipped away, quietly retraced a course past Ist and back to Komiza as dawn was breaking. The Partisan leaders were elated, as they had found this old cruiser a thorn in their flesh. In many ways this early major success by the MTBs was a very significant boost to the trust which built up between the Partisans and the Royal Navy.’ (Mediterranean MTBs At War, L. C. Reynolds and H. F. Cooper, refers)

Lord Teignmouth was awarded the D.S.C. for his gallantry during the successful attack on the Niobe, with the investiture taking place 10 October 1944. The 20th Flotilla continued to operate with the 24th from Komiza, in and around the Dalmatian Islands, throughout January 1944. Lord Teignmouth was part of a three MTB patrol, 31 January/1 February 1944. On the latter date they sank two schooners with depth charges off Silba Island, after taking off two German and six Italian prisoners.

Lord Teignmouth was recalled to the UK, and was appointed to the 30th Flotilla as part of the Nore Command in May 1944. The 30th Flotilla was posted to Portsmouth, with Lord Teignmouth eventually commanding the Second Division of the flotilla:

‘To reinforce the hard-pressed boats on the nightly blockade of Le Havre and to protect the Allied anchorage from attacks from the east. One feature of Peter Magnus’ flotilla was that four of his COs were vastly experienced, having served with distinction for two years in the Mediterranean. Lt The Hon F. M. A. Shore in 474, Lt. D. D. Owen-Pawson in 472, Lt. J. J. Aimers in 473 and Lt. R. Campbell RCNVR in 480 all featured... in the campaigns along the North African coast off Tunisia, then in the invasion of Sicily and in the Italian campaign. It said a great deal for their dedication that they were once again in the thick of the fray.

Freddie Shore led the first unit of the flotilla to meet the enemy, off Cap d’Antifer on 14/15 July, with Ross Campbell and Jeff Aimers. They were vectored to a group of E-boats which fled as soon as the attack began, and it never developed beyond a brief long-range skirmish. Their turn would come again....

Not every brush with the enemy led to positive results, but on 8/August a unit of the 30th led by Freddie Shore had a rare encounter with a merchant vessel, sank her and damaged her R-boat escort. Two nights later he led a different unit and had a tough battle with an unpleasant Sperrbrecher and its escort... [On the night of the 19th] Shore’s unit of the 30th made an unsuccessful torpedo attack on six R-boats, and without pause followed this up with a gun attack, cutting through the enemy line and savagely raking the boats with gunfire on either side. Enemy radio admitted that one R-boat was sunk, and two others were known to have been damaged. And so it went on...’ (Home Waters MTBs & MGBs At War 1939-1945, L. C. Reynolds refers)

Lord Teignmouth was awarded the Second Award Bar to his D.S.C. for his gallantry during various engagements in the Channel, July - August 1944 (during which time he was engaged in command of MTB 475). With the advance of the Allies in Europe, so the areas of engagement changed for the 30th Flotilla. The latter were to be heavily engaged against E-boats around the Schelde and off the Hook:

The action of 22/23 December [1944] was a complex battle involving initially seven boats of Peter Magnus’s 30th Flotilla, and a later force of destroyers, frigates and the 53rd Flotilla of Dog Boats.

Magnus’ report reveals that the 30th was ordered to make an anti-E-boat patrol off the Hook, ‘with freedom of action to attack any enemy shipping south of 52 degrees north.’ His seven boats were organised in two divisions, with 475 (SO), 473, 472 and 471 (Bradley) in the first, and 474 (Shore), 476 and 477 in the second. They were approaching their patrol position at 17 knots when Magnus’s radar detected vessels at 2,800 yards and closing, on either bow. A few seconds later six E-boats were sighted, moving across the unit’s line of advance at 30 knots. Knowing that his boats had a maximum continuous speed of only 30 knots, he deemed it essential to attack at once, and he closed to just 100 yards before opening fire and running along the enemy line. There was no reply for fifteen seconds, and when the response came it was wild and high, which seemed to indicate that the E-boats were shaken by the ferocity of the attack. The third, fourth and fifth E-boats in the line were particularly hard hit, and the fourth, which had taken many 6-pounder and Oerlikon shells, blew up with a large red explosion and clouds of black smoke. In a very short time the MTBs had run the full extent of the E-boats’ line, and Magnus sent the second division in pursuit but to no avail.

The unit resumed its patrol position and half an hour later obtained echoes at 5,000 yards. Almost immediately the MTBs were illuminated by well-aimed star shells and began to be shelled by high-calibre shells from an enemy they could not even see. After several near-misses, Magnus decided to move away, intending to return later, but he lost radar contact. 471 had been hit in the engine room and had to return to base. Intelligence later revealed that it was the E-boat S 185 which had been sunk.

Further phases of the action involved two more groups of E-boats which fell foul of the Dog Boats, Walpole, Curzon and several other frigates and destroyers. Three more E-boats were sunk, two of which were identified as S 192 and S 182. It had been a bad night for the E-boat flotillas. Peter Magnus received a Bar to his D.S.C.’ (Home Waters MTBs & MGBs At War 1939-1945, L. C. Reynolds refers)

Lord Teignmouth was invested with the Second Award Bar to his D.S.C., 27 July 1945, and subsequently served with the Department of the Chief of Naval Information, Admiralty. After the war he worked in London as a successful fashion designer, and he succeeded to the title of 7th Baron Teignmouth with the death of his father in 1964. In 1977 ‘he moved back to his family home in Kilkenny. A slightly-built, compulsively modest man, he was a superb salmon fisher - above all on the Nore where he lived - and an outstanding shot.

“Fred” Teignmouth represented the very best of the old Anglo-Irish tradition: he possessed a style, wit and courtesy that delightfully crossed St. James’s with Somerville and Ross, and a deep affection for Ireland and its people.’ (Obituary as appeared in the Daily Telegraph refers)

Lord Teignmouth died at 10 Grenville Place, Kensington, in July 1981.

Sold with a large framed oil painting of the 7th Baron Teignmouth in uniform, and extensive copied research including photographic images of the recipients.

For the medals awarded to Commander The Honourable L. H. Shore, the brother of Lieutenant the 6th Baron Teignmouth; and the uncle of both Major the Honourable L. Shore and Lieutenant the 7th Baron Teignmouth, see Lot 687.