Royal Navy Long Service Medal, G. V. R. To HMS Columbine (Gallipoli on Skirmisher)

Richard Ernest Rowett was born on 29 Jan 1879 at St Austell, Cornwall. He served the war aboard HMS Skirmisher including in the Dardanelles. He died in 1941 at St Austell leaving his effects to his widow Lillian.

In 1907, Skirmisher commissioned as leader of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla based at Dover, part of the Home Fleet. In May 1909 she became leader of the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla, moving to the 4th Destroyer Flotilla at Portsmouth in 1910. She was refitted in 1912 and took part in the 1913 Naval Manoeuvres before joining the 7th Destroyer Flotilla, a patrol flotilla equipped with older destroyers, as leader in July 1913.

During her early career, her captains included Walter Cowan and William Boyle, both of whom would later rise to the rank of Admiral. Skirmisher remained leader of the 7th Flotilla, based at Devonport, on the eve of the outbreak of the First World War. Following the outbreak of war, the 7th Flotilla moved to the Humber on the East Coast of Britain. On 15 December 1914, German battlecruisers, supported by the battleships of the main German High Seas Fleet set out on a raid against the coastal towns of Scarborough, Whitby and Hartlepool. While the British had been warned by radio intercepts that the Germans were likely to carry out some sort of action, and sent out forces from the Grand Fleet to intercept, Admiral George A.

Ballard, Admiral of Patrols in overall command of all the patrol flotillas, had, owing to poor weather, ordered the forces under his command to remain in harbor until they received explicit orders to sail. On receiving word of the bombardments, Ballard set out from the Humber in Skirmisher at together with eight torpedo boats. Heavy seas forced Ballard to send the torpedo boats back to port, while he searched up the coast in Skirmisher for the German raiders.

Skirmisher failed to find the Germans, who had sailed eastwards well before Ballard reached the bombarded towns. By October 1915, the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron had been broken up, and Skirmisher had joined the Mediterranean Fleet.

Skirmisher remained part of the Mediterranean Fleet throughout 1916 and into 1917, joining the Aegean Squadron in September that year. On 20 January 1918, the Turkish battlecruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim (formerly the German Goeben) and light cruiser Midilli (formerly Breslau) made a sortie into the Mediterranean from the Dardanelles. On hearing of the attack on the monitors, Captain P.

Meanwhile, Vice-Admiral Hubert von Rebeur-Paschwitz, commander of the Turkish force ordered Yavuz and Midilli to attack Mudros. Skirmisher remained part of the Aegean Squadron until the end of the war. Skirmisher had been ordered to return to home waters by May 1919 and was in reserve at Immingham in the Humber by June. All items are unconditionally guaranteed as to authenticity. We are members of The Orders & Medals Research Society, (OMRS), The Orders & Medals Society of America (OMSA), The Military Collectors Club of Canada (MCC of C) & The Canadian Society of Medals & Military Insignia (CSMMI).

GST / HST is additional if a Canadian Resident. Please visit our website : arcticmedals dot com for illustrated list of Military Medals and especially Canadian badges.

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