Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Private D. W. Spriddle, Royal Army Pay Corps, who was killed in action when H.M.T. Lancastria was sunk by the Luftwaffe during Operation Ariel off Saint-Nazaire, France, on 17 June 1940 – the loss of the Lancastria was the largest single-ship loss of life in British maritime history with some estimates putting the casualties as high as 6,500 souls

1939-45 Star; War Medal 1939-45, with original Army Council condolence slip named to ‘7663512 Pte. D. W. Spriddle. R.A.P.C.’, the medals mounted court-style for display, good very fine (2) £100-£140

David William Spriddle was born in the village of Saint Germans, Cornwall, in 1917, the son of Dockyard Inspector William Henry Spriddle. He enlisted in the Royal Army Pay Corps at the outbreak of the Second World War and was sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force. The success and speed of the German invasion soon had the Corps on the move and in June 1940, Spriddle and his comrades were waiting at Saint Nazaire for evacuation home to England.

Sent to the Loire Estuary in response, the H.M.T. Lancastria was a British ocean liner which had been stripped out and requisitioned as a troopship; anchored about 8 miles offshore, the troops were rapidly ferried out to her with reports of between 6,000 and 9,000 souls aboard upon departure. Overcrowded and spotted by the Luftwaffe - which had already targeted Oronsay in the early afternoon - the Lancastria steamed out of the Estuary and began to make her way towards deeper waters. It was at this time that she was attacked by Ju88 bombers with devastating consequences; struck by a stick of three bombs, 1 succeeded in going directly down her funnel and detonating in her bunkers. Thousands of tons of fuel oil were spilled into the sea, which then caught ablaze. In twenty minutes she turned over and sank, the survivors being machine-gunned in the water or upon the upturned hull by the enemy.

The total number of people on board is unknown; however, some estimates put the figure as high as 9,000, which would mean a total loss of life of around 6,500, and account for approximately a third of the total casualties of the British Expeditionary Force in 1940; even conservative estimates put it at 3,000 souls, making it the largest single-ship loss of life in British maritime history. Many of the dead were recorded as simply ‘missing in action during the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from France’. News of the sinking of the Lancastria was initially suppressed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill for fear of its impact on British morale. It is believed that 24 men of the Royal Army Pay Corps died in the disaster, including Spriddle. Aged 22 years, he is commemorated on the Escoublac-La-Baule War Memorial, France.

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