SMS KONIGSBERG & GALLIPOLI WW1 ROYAL NAVY MEDALS 306229 SPO LASHBROOK DARTMOUTH

Offered is a fine group of 5 medals to Stoker Petty Officer R. Lashbrook, Royal Navy, who served in H.M.S. Marksman at the Battle of Jutland, as well as seeing service at Gallipoli & in relation to the German cruiser Königsberg

Naval General Service Medal (1915 – 62) with clasp PERSIAN GULF 1909 – 1914, impressed named 306229 R. LASHBROOKE LG. STO H.M.S. DARTMOUTH.; 1914 – 15 Star, impressed named 306229 R. LASHBROOKE. L. STO.. R.N.; British War and Victory Medals (1914 – 18), impressed named 306229 R. LASHBROOK. S.P.O. R.N.; Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal (G.V) impressed named 306229 R. LASHBROOK. S.P.O. H.M.S. JULIUS. Court mounted for display and comes with copies service records, medal roll and newspaper article.

Stoker Petty Officer Richard Lashbrook was born on the 25/12/1885 at Truro, Cornwall, a mason by trade he enlisted into the Royal Navy on the 12/4/1904 as a Stoker 2^nd Class.

He served on a variety of H.M. ship and shore bases including Vivid II (Vivid II was the Stokers and Engine Room Artificers School in Devonport), Cambridge, Cornwall, Russell, Gibraltar, Prometheus, Tamar (Shore base Hong Kong), Indus.

WW1 service included Dartmouth (Town-class light cruiser) 2/9/1913 – 30/6/1915. 1914 she escorted a troop convoy from Karachi to Mombasa in Kenya and then took part in the search for the German cruiser Königsberg. On 9/10/1914she captured the German tug Adjutant in the Mozambique Channel. On 30 October, the cruiser HMS Chatham spotted Königsberg moored up the Rufiji delta, and on 2 November, Dartmouth attempted to engage Königsberg or the supporting steamer Somali but the German ships were too far upstream to be successfully engaged.11/11/1914 she left to reinforce the Cape of Good Hope Station in the aftermath of the Battle of Coronel. In January 1915, Dartmouth was reassigned to the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet but was detached to operate in the South Atlantic in the search for the commerce raider SMS Karlsruhe.

In February 1915, Dartmouth was sent to join the forces operating off the Dardanelles in support of the Gallipoli Campaign. On 15 March she suffered a boiler explosion that killed 15 of her crew. Despite this damage, Dartmouth continued operations, and on 18 March Dartmouth patrolled off the West coast of the Gallipoli peninsula while a final attempt was made by the battleships of the fleet to force the straits during daylight. The attack was a failure, with three battleships sunk by mines, and several more ships heavily damages by mines or by Turkish gunfire. Dartmouth escorted the battlecruiser HMS Inflexible, badly damaged by striking a mine, to Tenedos. On 25 April, the Allies landed troops at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles on the Gallipoli peninsula, with Dartmouth taking part in a diversionary simulated landing further north, at Bulair.

In May 1915, Dartmouth was reassigned to the 8th Light Cruiser Squadron at Brindisi, supporting Italian forces in the Adriatic Sea. Dartmouth's speed had been reduced to 21 knots by the boiler explosion in March, and further boiler problems had reduced her speed to 16 knots by June 1915. As a result, on 30 June Dartmouth paid off at Malta for a refit.

Vivid II 1/7/1915 – 8/12/1915. Blake (destroyer depot ship) for the (?) 12/11/1915 – 8/12/1915. Much of the rest of service in the Great War was spent in H.M.S. Marksman, which served in the 12th Destroyer Flotilla of the Grand Fleet, and he was present at the Battle of Jutland, 31st May 1916. Vivid II 1/4/1918 – 19/6/1918. Warspite 20/6/1918 – 28/11/1919.

Post war he served aboard Julius (the harbour craft base at Constantinople), Iron Duke, Impregnable, Victory, Defiance. He was discharged to a shore pension 11/4/1926. 15/6/1916 promoted to Stoker Petty Officer awarded L.S. & G.C. Medal 19/8/1921.

Of interest is 2 newspaper articles, the 1s deals (1893) with receiving 3 strokes of the birch for his part in breaking into a sweet shop when he was 9 years old.

The second is classic Royal Navy out on the town (1905). Arrested after being carried down the street by 4 sailors, he shook them off and challenged to fight the witness.

He died in Tressilian, Truro on the 31/3/1937.