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HMS Thrush served between October 1899 and June 1902. Commanded by Lieutenant W H D'Oyly.



Picture courtesy of the London Medal Co

QSA (0) (A.J. DOWN. ORD., H.M.S. THRUSH);
AGS (1) Aro 1901-1902; (198143 A.B. A. DOWN. H.M.S. THRUSH);
1914-1915 Star; (75499 DVR. A.J. DOWN. R.F.A.);
BWM & VM (75499 CPL. A.J. DOWN. R.A.)

Arthur Joseph Down was born on 23rd August 1881 in Deptford, Kent, and having worked as a clerk, then joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class (Chatham No.198143) with Impregnable on 4th February 1898, before being advanced to Boy 1st Class whilst with Ganges on 9th March 1899. Rated as an Ordinary Seaman whilst back with Impregnable on 23rd August 1899, after a stint with Pembroke I, he then joined the guard ship Monarch at Simon’s Bay, South Africa on 9th December 1899, shortly after the outbreak of the Boer War.

Down was then posted aboard the gunboat Thrush at the Cape on 24th August 1900, when she was commander by Lieutenant Warren Hastings D’Oyly, he served with her during the Boer War and was one of 65 men of her crew to receive the Queen’s South Africa Medal 1899-1902 without a clasp, 80 medals in all being awarded to this ship.

It was whilst Down was aboard Thrush and playing a minor role in the Boer War, he having been appointed to Able Seaman on 26th May 1901, that the ship received a far more interesting posted to West Africa, when he became one of 46 men of his ship to see service in support of the Aro Expeditionary Force when in early 1902 Thrush helped the British force in Nigeria re-open trade routes on the Lower Niger, closed by the piracy of some locals. These operations which officially began on 15th November 1901, ended on 23rd March 1902. In all only 75 Africa General Service Medal 1899-1956 with the clasp for Aro 1901-1902 were issued to men of the Royal Navy, the other vessel being the Southern Nigeria gunboat Jackdaw, of which 29 men received medals.

Posted to Pembroke on 30th May 1903, Down subsequently saw service afloat aboard Jason from May to December 1903, Aboukir from June 1905 to March 1906, Black Prince from March 1906 to March 1908, Inflexible from November 1908 to November 1910 and finally Albion from December 1910 to August 1911, before being discharged ashore from her on 22nd August 1911.

With the outbreak of the Great War, Down did not however rejoin the Royal Navy, and instead saw service as a Driver later Corporal (No.75499) with the Royal Field Artillery, being present out on the Western Front from 10th July 1915 with the 15th Divisional Ammunition Column, and later transferring as a a Corporal (No.439826) to the Labour Corps, prior to his being transferred to the Class Z Army Reserve on 5th March 1919.

The addition Army service during the Great War is certainly interesting, I dare say he must have had his reasons for not going back to sea, although, I am not sure that would have been a safer option given the ever present dangers.

Picture courtesy of DNW

DSO GV;
QSA (2) Cape Colony, South Africa 1901 (Sub. Lieut. D. F. Moir, R.N., H.M.S. Thrush.);
AGS 1902 (1) Aro 1901-1902 (Sub: Lieut: D. F. Moir, H.M.S. Thrush);
1914-15 Star (Commr. D. F. Moir, R.N.);
British War and Victory Medals, with MID (Commr. D. F. Moir, R.N.)

80 Q.S.A. medals to H.M.S. Thrush, but only 15 with clasps, including 2 officers and a surgeon.

45 clasps for Aro 1901-1902 issued to the Royal Navy, all to H.M.S. Thrush, including 3 officers and a surgeon.

DSO London Gazette 8 March 1918: ‘For services in Destroyer and Torpedo Boat Flotillas during the period ending 31st December 1917.

MID London Gazette 15 September 1916: ‘For services in the Battle of Jutland.’

Dashwood Fowler Muir was born at St Andrews, Scotland, on 16 August 1880, and entered the Royal Navy as a Naval Cadet on 15 July 1894; Midshipman, 15 December 1896; Sub-Lieutenant, 15 June 1900; Lieutenant, 26 June 1902; Lieutenant-Commander, 26 June 1910; Commander, 30 June 1914; Captain, 30 June 1919; Rear-Admiral, 19 July 1931, and placed on the Retired List the following day; Vice-Admiral, 2 January 1936.

After a period as Midshipman in the battleship Renown in the Mediterranean, Moir was appointed as Sub-Lieutenant to the screw gunboat Thrush on the Cape of Good Hope station, where he participated in the latter stages of the South African war (Medal with 2 clasps) and afterwards in the Aro operations of 1901-02 on the coast of West Africa, and was ‘favourably mentioned in connection with the expedition up the Niger River’ (Medal with clasp).

Following a period of training he qualified to act as Instructor in Physical Training. In early 1907, he received his first command, that of Torpedo Boat No. 7, followed by that of T.B. No. 117 in May 1909. He was appointed to the command of the destroyer Ariel in January 1912 and commanded her in the actions of Dogger Bank and Heligoland Bight in 1914. In December 1914 he took command of the destroyer Goshawk in which he fought at the battle of Jutland when he commanded a division of the First Destroyer Flotilla. He was mentioned in despatches following the battle. In 1917 he was given the new destroyer Vimiera and in July 1918 moved to the Valhalla, having been awarded the D.S.O. earlier in the year.

He left Valhalla in January 1919, and in December 1920 he commanded Bruce at the head of the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla. In 1921 he moved to Mackay, a Submarine tender. During 1925 and 1926 he was Flag Captain for the naval dockyards on Malta, and in 1929 he took over H.M. Dockyards in Sheerness. In early 1931 he was given his final large ship H.M.S. Glorious, an aircraft carrier on patrol in the Mediterranean. Placed on the Retired List as Rear-Admiral in July 1931, he was promoted to Vice Admiral in 1936.

In the Second World War he was created Commodore (Second Class) in the Royal Navy Reserve in October 1941 and put on active duty supporting convoys at the rank of Commodore of Convoy. He successfully led Convoy ON-36 and Convoy HX-165, the latter he controlled from H.M.S. Pacific Explorer to the rear.

Convoy SC-94 set off from Sydney, Nova Scotia, in July 1942 with Moir acting as Commodore of the merchant fleet in the Trehata. The convoy was discovered by a German ‘wolf pack’ on 5 August and over the course of the next five days eleven merchant ships were sunk by the U-boats. The Trehata was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-176 on 8 August, near Cape Farewell on the Greenland coast, with the loss of 31 lives including that of Vice-Admiral Dashwood Moir who was declared ‘missing presumed dead’ on the following day. He was one of the most senior Royal Navy officers to be killed in the Second World War. He is commemorated by name on the Liverpool Naval Memorial.

The group to AB Down that appeared on LMC's site in February 2019 is in today's DNW auction.

QSA (0) (A. J. Down Ord., HMS Thrush.) small impressed naming;
AGS 1902 (1) Aro 1901-1902 (198143 A.B. A. Down. HMS Thrush.) small impressed naming;
1914-15 Star (75499 Dvr. A. J. Down. R.F.A.);
BWM and VM (75499 Cpl. A. J. Down. R.A.)

Picture courtesy of Spink

QSA (2) Cape Colony, South Africa 1901 (F. Brinstead. Arm. Mte., H.M.S. Thrust. [sic]), officially re-impressed naming;
AGS 1902 (1) Aro 1901-1902 (340927 Arm:Mate F. Binsted. H.M.S. Thrush), officially re-impressed naming;
1914-15 Star (340927, F. R. Binstead, Act. Ch. Arm., R.N.);
British War and Victory Medals (340927 F. R. Binstead. Ch. Armr. R.N.);
Royal Navy LS&GC (340927 F. R. Binstead, Armr., H.M.S. Lord Nelson.),

46 'Aro 1901-02' clasps issued to the Royal Navy.

Frederick Richard Binsted was born at Stroud, Kent on 19 April 1874, the son of Henry and Emma Binstead of 1 Waterloo Place, Frindsbury, Kent. Enlisting with the Royal Navy as Armourer's Crew (probationary) on 15 October 1895 he was posted first to the shore establishment Wildfire. He saw service in a number of vessels and establishments, being promoted Armourer's Mate with Pembroke II on 9 December 1898.

Posted to the gunboat Thrush on 21 December 1899, just prior to her involvement in the Anglo-Boer War. It appears that Binsted may have served ashore during this conflict, being an Armourer's Mate his skills would doubtless have been welcome. They also saw service during the Aro expedition at this time, with the intention of suppressing the local slave trade and re-open the lower Niger river which had been closed to commerce by pirate activity.

Rated Armourer on 27 April 1905 while with HMS Jason, Binsted continued to serve. Stationed aboard the tender HMS Tyne on the outbreak of the Great War he was further promoted Chief Armourer on 1 November 1915. Posted to the battleship Prince George he was with her during the attempts to force the Dardanelles in May 1915 when she was holed below the waterline by Turkish fire. Leaving her not long later he was also to see service with HMS Weymouth the next year before being posted ashore. His final ship from 19 November 1917 was Phaeton, Binsted was demobilised on 7 March 1919. He appears to have died not long later as his particulars are noted on his service records as having been sent to his widow at Gillingham, Kent.