For sale is a Royal Navy medal group comprising 1914 – 15 Star, British War and Victory Medals (1914 – 18) all impressed named J.30672 A.E. BREWER. A.B. R.N.; Defence and War Medals (1939 – 45) unnamed as issued.; Royal Navy Long Service & Good Conduct Medal (G.V.R.) with second award bar, impressed named J.30672 A.E. BREWER. P.O. H.M.S. PEMBROKE. Court mounted for display with copies of service records.
Chief Petty Officer Albert Edward Brewer was born on Christmas day in 1898 in Tavistock, Devon, England. He enlisted directly into the Royal Navy from schools as a Boy 2nd Class on 27/4/1914.
Stationed at H.M.S. Impregnable (training ship) until 21/3/1915 his first ship being H.M.S. King Edward VII (battleship) from 22/3/1915 – 3/5/1915. H.M.S. Berwick (cruiser) 11/6/1915 – 12/11/1915.
Battle of Jutland
H.M.S. Revenge (super dreadnought) from 1/2/1916 – 6/1/1921. During the Battle of Jutland she was part of the 1st Division of 1st Battle Squadron.
At about 6,20pm she first engaged the crippled cruiser S.M.S. Wiesbaden or the German battle line, for 17 minutes without any hits recorded, two hours later she was forced to turn away to avoid a torpedo which passed in her wake. Shortly thereafter, she engaged the battlecruiser Derfflinger; her first salvo estimated the range to be 11,000 yards overshot the target. The second salvo at 10,200 yards straddled Derfflinger. With the range found, she quickly scored five hits before shifting fire to the battlecruiser Von der Tann, since other battleships were concentrating their fire on Derfflinger. Two of her hits on Derfflinger disabled her aft turrets; the other three caused less significant damage, with one of them passing through a funnel without exploding. Revenge hit Von der Tann once near
her aft conning tower at 19:19, doing minor damage; she also fired a torpedo at the ship during this period that failed to hit.
Revenge had to turn away to avoid a pair of torpedoes and had no further contact with German forces. During the battle, Revenge had fired 102 rounds from her main battery, and 87 rounds from her secondary guns. She was not hit herself during the battle.
He continued to serve post war being promoted to Petty Officer in 1926 and chief P.O. in 1935. He was pensioned to shore on 24/12/1938.
He was awarded his LS and GC Medal with gratuity in 1932
Recalled for WW2 the only posting recorded is H.M.S. Defiance (torpedo school) on 31/7/1939, being released from service on 15/10/1945.
He died in Plymouth in April 1981.
