A good Boxer Rebellion and Great War full entitlement pair awarded to Leading Stoker 1st Class H.J. Williams, H.M.S. Terrible who saw service in China during the Boxer Rebellion and later at in home waters during the Great War. He had earlier been serving aboard H.M.S. Euphrates when she had collided with the German steamer Gutenfels in the Suez Canal on 6th February 1892.
Pair: China Medal 1900, no clasp; (H.J. WILLIAMS. LG. STO. 1. CL. H.M.S. TERRIBLE.) British War Medal 1914-1919; (151931 H.J. WILLIAMS. CH. STO. R.N.)
Condition: Good Very Fine
Henry James Williams was born in Portsmouth during 1865. He attested on 2nd December 1899 for 12 years service giving his trade as a mason. Initially serving aboard the Guard Ship H.M.S. Asia, he would then transfer to the HMS Euphrates where he would remain aboard until 30th May 1893 being aboard the vessel on 6th February 1892 when she collided with the German steamer Gutenfels in the Suez Canal.
He would see service aboard HMS Magicienne off of the west coast of Africa between 30th August 1893 and 29th December 1894, he would then go on to spend a short period of service aboard HMS Blake.
From 18th September 1895 until 19th June 1896 he would spend time aboard HMS Malabar, the troopship running between UK and India.
On 28th March 1898 he would transfer to H.M.S. Terrible and see service during the Boxer Rebellion.
H.M.S. Terrible arrived at Hong Kong on 8 May 1900 and Scott mounted four 12-pounders on field carriages later that month, once he became aware that Terrible and her crew would be ordered north to assist British forces against the anti-foreigner movement known as the Boxers. Orders arrived on 15 June that Terrible was to load three companies of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and sail to Taku where she arrived on the 21st. A single 12-pounder gun accompanied the relief force that reached the foreign quarter of Tianjin on 24 June. The other three guns accompanied the expedition that defeated the Chinese forces in the city of Tianjin in mid-July. All four guns were part of the second relief expedition to Beijing in August and her crewmen returned to the ship on 7 September. After hostilities ceased Scott focused to working up his ship's gunnery capabilities, devising various training aids, and her crew shot a very respectable score of 78.8% in the 1900 prize firing. Terrible arrived in Hong Kong on 17 December after a typhoon had struck the city, and Scott volunteered to salvage the capsized dredger Canton River. Work began the following month and Scott succeeded two months later. In the Navy's 1901 prize firing Terrible achieved a score of 80%, the best of any ship in the Navy.
In early 1902 Terrible spent several months at Hong Kong, providing relief and condensed water for the dockyard, amid an outbreak of cholera in the city leading to a water famine. In July 1902 Scott received orders to return with his ship to Britain, and after visits to Colombo and Aden, passed via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean where she visited Malta and Gibraltar before she returned to Portsmouth on 19 September. On her return, 700 of her officers and men were hosted to a public dinner in Portsmouth, before she was paid off on 24 October to begin a long refit at Messrs. John Brown and Co.′s works at Clydebank. During this refit, the RN added four 6-inch guns in casemates amidships, although no additional ammunition could be accommodated in the ship.
Remaining in the service he would serve in home waters aboard depot shops during the Great War and this is his full entitlement
