SCARCE WW1 JUTLAND & RUSSIA 1914-15 MEDAL GROUP LT COMMANDER COSGROVE ROYAL NAVY

Offered is an interesting WW1 and Russian intervention medal group, as award to Lieutenant Commander Thomas Cosgrove, who served 23 years in the Royal Navy.

The group includes 1914 – 15 Star, impressed named MTE. T.W. COSGROVE. R.N.; British War and Victory Medals, impressed named LIEUT. T.W.COSGROVE. R.N.; Aldershot Cup Medal (silver) period ‘chisel’ engraved 1913 T.C. COSGROVE. GUNNER R.N. Court mounted for display with H.M.S. VIVID tally band; bronze United Services Rifle League 1909 shooting medallion, period engraved Won by H.M.S. VIVID. T.W. COSGROVE. L.S.G.M. Comes with copies service papers (enlisted man and officers) medal roll, Mercantile Marine ‘Masters’ ticket, newspaper articles, research and newspaper articles with photograph of Cosgrove.

Lieutenant Commander & chief of the Chester City fire Brigade Thomas Wesley Cosgrove, was born on 19/5/1884 at Emlaghfad, Sligo. A clerk by trade he enlisted with the Royal Navy 19/5/1902 as an A.B (service number 210197). He steadily progressed through the ranks with promotion: 22/12/1911 Gunner, Mate 15/1/1915, Watch Keeper 13/7/1916. Lieutenant 15/2/1917, Lieutenant Commander (Retired) 15/2/1925.

Pre WW1 he served on the following H.M ships and shore establishments: Black Prince (Ironclad Frigate, built 1862, became a harbour training ship in 1896, stationed at Queenstown, Ireland) Minotour (built 1867, Minotaur-class armoured frigate) Agincourt (Minotaur-class armoured frigate) Vivid, Cambridge (gunnery training school) Challenger, Argonaut, Mars, Collingwood, Defiance.

WW1 Battle of Jutland: H.M.S. Temeraire (Bellerophon-class dreadnought) 27/8/1915 – 15/2/1917. On 31 May, Temeraire was the fifteenth ship from the head of the battle line after deployment. During the first stage of the general engagement, the ship fired five salvos from her main guns at the crippled light cruiser SMS Wiesbaden, claiming two or three hits. Fired seven salvos at the battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger, but did not make any hits. About ten minutes later, Temeraire engaged several German destroyer flotillas with three salvos from her main armament without result. This was the last time that the ship fired her guns during the battle. She received no damage and fired a total of 72 twelve-inch shells and 50 shells from her four-inch guns during the battle

H.M.S. Marshal Soult. (Marshal Ney-class monitor) 27/2/1917 – 6/3/1918. Part of the R.N.'s Dover Patrol, for the bombardment, in the shallow waters off Belgium for which she had been designed, of strategic land targets and port installations – in particular around Zeebrugge and Ostend. Excellent report from his time on the Marshal Soult including ‘During the late part of 1917, he was in charge of the turret for 6 different engagements with coastal shore batteries + aircraft, during which actions the ship was at times under heavy fire & attack by bombs from aircraft’.

H.M.S. Victor (destroyer Acasta class). 3/1918 – 13/12/1918.

H.M.S. Woolstone 14/12/1918 - 10/1/1919. A Royal Navy squadron was sent under Rear-Admiral Edwyn Alexander-Sinclair. This force consisted of modern C-class cruisers and V- and W-class destroyers. In December 1918, Sinclair sallied into Estonian and Latvian ports, sending in troops and supplies, and promising to attack the Bolsheviks "as far as my guns can reach". British forces denied the Bolsheviks the ability to move by sea, Royal Navy ships bombarded the Bolsheviks on land in support of Estonian and Latvian troops, and provided supplies. British cruisers and destroyers soon sailed up the coast close to the Estonian-Russian border and laid down a devastating barrage on the advancing Bolsheviks' supply lines.

H.M.S. Tirade 10/1/1919 – 2/1919. Shore & resigned 20/9/1920.

May 1923 appointed Chief of the Chester City Fire Brigade, a position which he held until he collapsed and died at the Fire Station 27/10/1935. Lt Commander Cosgrove was highly respected as his ½ page newspaper obituary reflects.

From his obituary: During the war he was 1^st attached as a junior officer to the base fire brigade at Devonport and in charge of the Naval Brigade Fire party at Dunkirk (probably when he was on the Marshal Soult) hence his appointment to the Chester Fire Brigade. The reference to Zeebrugge would have been from his time on Marshal Soult bombarding Zeebrugge and Ostend etc.

The reference to the massive fire in the Shell-Mex storage depot at Stanlow Ellesmere Port, Liverpool. This contained over 50 million gallons of petrol. During the fire one of the tanks containing several thousand gallons exploded. Some 84,000 gallons of petrol were consumed in the fire which burnt for over 20 hours.