Distinguished Service Medal : Second Hand William Murt James, HM Trawler H E Stroud, Auxiliary Patrol, Royal Naval Reserve

Place	Oceans: Atlantic Ocean, North Sea
Accession Number	REL/22075.001
Collection type	Heraldry
Object type	Award
Physical description	Silver
Maker	Unknown
Place made	United Kingdom
Date made	c 1916
Conflict	First World War, 1914-1918

Description

Distinguished Service Medal (Geo V). Impressed around edge with recipient's details.

History / Summary

Born in St Ives, Cornwall, UK in 1892 William Murt James entered the Royal Navy in 1908 (service number J.3798) and the following year signed on for 12 years. He was discharged over a disciplinary matter in May 1911 but remained in the Royal Naval Reserve. He was called up to serve in the First World War and was posted as a stoker (service number D.A.1969) to HM Trawler H.E. Stroud in the Auxiliary Patrol in the North Sea. According to later Australian navy records he was in command of a trawler by the end of the war. James was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, together with a number of other members of the patrol, in July 1916. The London Gazette for 14 June 1916, in which the award was announced reads: 'The Commissioners of the Admiralty have received with much satisfaction from the officers in charge of the Auxiliary Patrol areas at home and abroad reports on the services performed by the officers and men serving under their orders during the period 1st January,1915, to 31st January, 1916. These reports show that the officers and men serving in Armed Yachts, Trawlers and Drifters of the Auxiliary Patrol during the period in question have carried out their duties under extremely arduous and hazardous conditions of weather and exposure to enemy attack and mines with marked zeal, gallantry and success.'

In the 1920s James served as a seaman in the merchant navy. He, his wife and children emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia, in 1926. As a member of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve (seagoing) he was called up for service as a warrant officer on 17 September 1940 and posted to HMAS Coolebar, an auxiliary minesweeper operating out of Sydney with Minesweeping Group 50. In June 1941 James returned to Adelaide to take command of the Martindale, a motor yacht that had been lent to the RAN. The yacht was commissioned HMAS Martindale in August and operated as a tender to the shore establishment HMAS Torrens, together with patrolling the Whyalla area. In March 1944 the ship was sent to Sydney to refit for New Guinea service. It arrived in Milne Bay in July where it was used in air/sea rescue with the RAAF, and as a pilot ship. James returned to Australia in August after suffering from acute dermatitis. He then joined HMAS Warrawee, another auxiliary minesweeper. His appointment with the RAN was terminated in March 1945. James died in Adelaide in 1965.