Interesting WW1 medal pair, British War & Victory Medal, awarded to ALBERT DRAYNER Royal Navy, with bronze National Fire Brigade Union Long Service Medal to brother JAMES DRAYNER, Sandgate Fire Brigade, Kent, with associated British Fire Services letter

MM-MED-0045

Interesting WW1 medal pair, British War & Victory Medal, awarded to ALBERT DRAYNER Royal Navy, with bronze National Fire Brigade Union Long Service Medal to brother JAMES DRAYNER, Sandgate Fire Brigade, Kent, with associated British Fire Services letter 

You are looking at a small but very interesting collection of medals, 3 x medals in total, a WW1 medal pair and a National Fire Brigade Union medal awarded to two members of the DRAYNER family, brothers, with an associated letter regarding the issue of the Fire Brigade medal, as follows:

British War Medal & Victory Medal inscribed ‘190089 A.DRAYNER. A.B. R.N.’

National Fire Brigade Union Long Service Medal inscribed ‘J.S.DRAYNER Sandgate Fire Brigade 1912’, with ‘4727’ inscribed around the edge, with bars for ‘Five Years’ and ‘Ten Years’ additional service.

British Fire Services Association letter dated 3^rd November 1983, confirming that NFBU Medal number 4727 was issued to JAMES SMITH DRAYNER on the 26^th of March 1913, as a member of the Sandgate (Kent) Fire Brigade, having joined in May 1902, and that the bar was issued on the 8^th of August 1917.

ALBERT DRAYNER

ALBERT DRAYNER was born at Cheriton in Kent on the 6^th of April 1880, and he was the youngest of the two brothers.

He first joined the Royal Navy as a boy sailor on the 5^th of August 1896, with postings on HMS Impregnable, HMS Ganges and HMS Australia in 1898, this final ship being a member of the Royal Navy’s Coast Guard Squadron, tasked with coastal defence and training, and it was probably ALBERT’S final posting before he became an Ordinary Seaman on entering man service.

ALBERT became an Ordinary Seamon on the 6^th of April 1898, his 18^th birthday, and he is listed in the 1901 Census (Royal Navy), that was taken on the 31^st of March that year, as an Able Seaman aboard the First Class Battleship the ‘Ramillies’, flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, that was in company with HMS Boxer, a Torpedo Boat Destroyer, moored in the Grand Harbour, Valetta, Malta.

In addition to HMS Ramillies, ALBERT served on other ships during his pre-war naval service, and there is nothing within his naval record to suggest he was involved in any active operations during this period.

ALBERT first served in the Royal Navy for a period of 12 years, leaving on the 6^th of April 1910, and in 1911, he appears in the census for that year, living with his widowed mother and his older brother JAMES, and recorded as a labourer by profession.

ALBERT re-entered the Royal Navy during WW1, on the 3^rd of December 1915, serving aboard HMS General Wolfe from the 15^th of February 1916 to the 19^th of November 1918.

HMS General Wolfe, a member of the Dover Patrol, was primarily involved in shore bombardment operations, often anchored off the Belgian coast targeting German positions, especially coastal batteries that protected German warships and submarines (U-Boats) that were operating out of ports such as Ostend and Zeebrugge....In 1917, following a German upgrade to their coastal artillery defences, the ‘General Wolfe’ would often exchange fire with these coastal positions, most notably the enemies ‘Tirpitz’ battery that controlled large guns in protection of Ostend, and later, the ship was involved in preparing for amphibious operations that were due to take place on the Belgian coast.

In 1918, the General Wolfe underwent significant modification at Portsmouth, with a massive 18 inch MK I gun fitted to her quarterdeck, the largest gun ever fitted to a Royal Navy vessel, and in the September of that year, in the final stages of the war, and in support of ongoing allied operations, the ship started firing the new gun at a German held railway bridge at Snaeskerke in Belgium, and it was during this targeted bombardment that it fired a 3,320 lb (1,510 kg) shell, that travelled a distance of 36,000 yards, around 20.5 miles, and to this day, holds the record as being the longest combat shot ever fired in the history of the Royal Navy.

The handwriting used on ALBERT’S naval service record is difficult to decipher in parts, but it appears that he was trained as a Seaman Gunner, and he attended HMS Vernon from the 9^th of April to the 17^th of September 1904, for five months, and ‘Vernon’ was the Royal Navy’s ‘Torpedo and Electrical School’, often simply referred to as the ‘Torpedo School’, so he was highly qualified in the weapons systems that existed at that time....Whether this weapons training was carried over into his WW1 service on the General Wolfe is not exactly clear, but  the ‘Wolfe’ was a Shore-Bombardment Monitor, a heavy, slow moving, flat-bottomed ship that was designed to be able to get into shallow waters and target inland locations with very large guns, and ALBERT’S qualifications would have made him an ideal candidate for service on that type of ship.   

ALBERT was demobilised and left the Royal Navy on the 2^nd of March 1919.

JAMES SMITH DRAYNER

JAMES SMITH DRAYNER, the older of the two brothers, was born at Sandgate in Cheriton on the 24^th of July 1872.

In 1901, according to the census for that year, JAMES was living at Pembroke Street in Devonport, and he was described as a stoker in the Royal Navy, quote, ‘Navy Man’, but unfortunately, no naval service record can be found for him.

According to the British Fire Services Association letter that comes with these medals, JAMES joined the Sandgate (Kent) Fire Brigade in May 1902, and he was awarded NFBU Medal No 4727 on the 26^th of March 1913, receiving the 5 x year additional service bar on the 8^th of August 1917.

JAMES SMITH DRAYNER married ELLEN MARIA SANDELL at Stoke Damerel (Devonport area) in 1898 (June quarter, volume 5b page 714), but in 1901, when JAMES was living at Pembroke Street in Devonport, ELLEN was not listed alongside him, she was listed as an inmate at the Devonport Workhouse, and sadly, ELLEN MARIA DRAYNER died that same year, at the age of 30, with the event registered at Devonport in the September quarter of 1901 (Volume 5b page 183).

From the post 1901 census records in which both JAMES and ALBERT DRAYNER appear, they are listed together alongside other members of their family, and they are together in the 1939 Register when they were in the late 50s to late 60s, so they appear to have remained together into later life, which probably explains why these medals remained together also, and they are being sold as a family grouping, in the hope that any future owner will also keep them together.

SELLER NOTE = Supporting documentation obtained and / or created during this research will be provided.