Distinguished Service Medal : Petty Officer P J Kempster, RAN

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

Percy John Kempster was born at Portsmouth, England, in 1883, and entered the Royal Navy when he was eighteen, in 1901. On 24 October 1913 he transferred for an initial period of five years to the newly formed Royal Australian Navy, as a leading seaman, and was assigned the service number 8252. Kempster had trained in submarines and was a member of the crews who sailed the submarines AE1 and AE2 to Australia from Britain, arriving in Sydney on 24 May 1914. His service record does not make clear in which of the submarines he sailed. He returned to England in early 1915 for further service in submarines. In January 1916 Kempster was promoted to petty officer. He was awarded the Naval Long Service and Good Conduct Medal for fifteen years service on 24 October 1916. Kempster was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal 'For services in action with enemy submarines whilst serving in HM Submarine G8' in the Atlantic on 23 July 1917. (London Gazette 2 November 1917). He qualified as a submarine coxswain on 10 August 1917. Kempster was drowned when the submarine sank in the North Sea on 15 January 1918. His body was not recovered and he is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial. Note that Kempster's Long Service and Good Conduct Medal is thought to have been lost when his submarine sank.