Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Mercantile Marine ‘Western Approaches’ Casualty pair awarded to Third Engineer W. E. Welch, Merchant Navy, who died on 17 June 1917 when the British Merchantman SS Don Arturo was torpedoed by the German submarine UC-62 approximately 90 miles off the Isles of Scilly

British War and Mercantile Marine War Medals (Wilfred E. Welch); Memorial Plaque (Wilfred Ewart Welch) nearly extremely fine (3) £300-£400

Wilfred Ewart Welch was born in Truro in 1892, the son of John Welch of 3, Atlantic Terrace, Camborne, Cornwall. Recorded in 1911 as an Apprentice Engineer at the local iron works, Welch joined the Mercantile Marine and was posted to the cargo ship SS Don Arturo, requisitioned from the Buenos Aires & Pacific Railway Company; capable of just 9 knots and with a full complement of 34 men, she proved a sitting duck whilst enroute from Algiers and Oran for the Tees in ballast. The ninth of fourteen victims of the UC-62 under 28 year-old Commander Max Schmitz, the SS Don Arturo sank without trace 90 miles off the Isles of Scilly on 17 June 1917 with no survivors. He is commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial.