The first VC won by a sailor in the Great War heads a remarkable collection of Royal Navy medals going under the hammer later this month.
Hundreds of decorations, awards, campaign and gallantry medals – led by the nation’s highest military honour – are being auctioned as an enthusiast’s incredible collection is sold off.
They span a couple of centuries of Royal Navy action and some of the most famous actions and deeds in the long and proud history of the Senior Service, especially the two World Wars and the Suez Crisis.
They belonged to former US Navy officer Jason Pilalas whose three tours of duty in Vietnam fired his passion for all things nautical – and his successful career in investment management allowed him to fund that passion.
In particular, Mr Pilalas, who died last year aged 82, was fascinated by the Royal Navy, its sailors, their deeds and especially their medals – and collected them by the hundreds.
The first half of his medals collection – expected to fetch around £2m – will be sold by Mayfair auction house Noonans on July 23.
The Victoria Cross awarded to Captain Henry Peel Ritchie tops the collection – it could fetch as much as £260,000.
The 38-year-old from Edinburgh was wounded eight times in 25 minutes as he tried to steer the steam pinnace from HMS Goliath out of danger during a raid on the port of Dar-es-Salaam – then under German rule – in east Africa in November 1914.
Mr Pilalas’ collection spans sailors and marines of all ranks, in all theatres, great raids such as Zeebrugge or the seizure of the Altmark, to the Yangtze and Laconia incidents, the destruction of Convoy PQ17, the carnage of Jutland, the skies over Suez, the jungles of Borneo.
The decorations were won by men who shaped history: Admiral Guy Gaunt, the intelligence chief in Washington who helped bring the USA into the Great War on the Allied side courtesy of the ‘Zimmermann Telegram’; Admiral Bill Tennant, captain of the Repulse which went down with HMS Prince of Wales in December 1941 (he was also key to the successful evacuation of Dunkirk).
Mr Pilalas didn’t focus solely on Royal Navy sailors. He snapped up medals awarded to merchant sailors, aircrew of RAF Coastal Command and the sailor-soldiers of the Royal Naval Division who fought in Gallipoli and on the Western Front.
Lots also include: Commander Alistair Murray who destroyed MiG-15s at Suez; fellow aviator Captain Royston Eveleigh who attacked the Tirpitz and also fought at Suez.
And there are Royal Marines: Sergeant William Carruthers, who grappled with insurgents during the post-WW2 Malay emergency and a memorial plaque to Major Francis Harvey – whose actions at Jutland spared battle-cruiser flagship HMS Lion from blowing up like HMS Indefatigable and Queen Mary.
Perhaps second only to the VC are the ten medals awarded to Lieutenant Commander William Hiscock. Aged 53 when war broke out in 1939 he became one of the leading bomb disposal experts of the war – especially associated with Malta, where he dealt with 125 ‘incidents’ at the height of the Axis siege of the island.
His bravery earned him the George Cross, inter alia, but he never received it; he and his wife were killed during an air raid on Valletta in February 1942. His medals are expected to fetch between £80,000 and £120,000.
Nimrod Dix, deputy chairman of Noonans and director of its medal department said Mr Pilalas was a fascinating character with many facets and many interests “none more so than his relentless pursuit of knowledge of all things relating to the Royal Navy.
“This voracious appetite for knowledge was matched only by his seemingly unquenchable thirst to collect objects relating to his passion.
“However, as much as Jason cherished his collection, he was always mindful of the fact that he was just the custodian of these objects in his own lifetime.”
You can learn more about the sale and the 250 lots at: https://www.noonans.co.uk/auctions/calendar/786/
