The extremely rare gallantry on land Distinguished Service Medal group awarded to Master-At-Arms W.C. Hatherley, Royal Navy who would be decorated with the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in March 1915 and would later the Distinguished Service Medal in the London Gazette of 21st January 1916 for gallant conduct at the Quarries near Vermelles on December 30th 1915. When the detachment of a Machine Gun having all become casualties owing to shell fire, this assisted by Petty Officer W. Bright, he voluntarily manned the gun and brought it into action again, thereby materially assisting to repulse a German attack. For this act his image would be published in War Illustrated on 13th May 1916. He would remain aboard New Zealand and would be present at the Battle of Jutland. Having reached the rank of Master-At-Arms in July 1917 he would be pensioned on 11th March 1922.
Group of 7: Distinguished Service Medal, GVR; (196082 W.C. HATHERLY. SH. CPL. 1CL. SERVICE IN FRANCE.) Queen’s South Africa Medal 1899-1902, no clasp; (W.C. HATHERLEY. ORD. H.M.S. TERRIBLE.) China Medal 1900, no clasp; (W.C. HATTERLEY. ORD. H.M.S. TERRIBLE.) British War Medal, this officially re-impressed and Victory Medal; (196082 W.C. HATHERLEY. M.A.A. R.N.) Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, GVR, 1st issue; (196082 W.C. HATHERLY. SHIP’S CORPL. 1CL. H.M.S. NEW ZEALAND.) New Zealand Silver Commissiong Medal 1913. note the variations of spelling of the recipient’s surname. Court-mounted for display.
Condition: Court-mounted for display, Good Very Fine
Provenance: Ex Jason Pilalas Collection.
William Cecil Hatherley was born at Kenton, Devon on 12th March 1882 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class aboard H.M.S Impregnable on 19th October 1897. He served in South Africa and China aboard H.M.S. Terrible from September 1899 to October 1902 taking part in the Boer War and Boxer Rebellion. He achieved the rank of Petty Officer in November 1906 and joined the Regulating Branch in August 1910 as Ship’s Corporal 2nd Class, advancing to Ship’s Corporal 1st Class in February 1911. He joined H.M.S. New Zealand in November 1912, and was aboard during the ship’s visit to New Zealand in 1913, he would be awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in March 1915 and would remain with her throughout most of the war.
New Zealand's first wartime action was the Battle of Heligoland Bight on 28 August 1914, as part of the battlecruiser force under the command of Admiral David Beatty. Beatty's ships were originally intended to provide distant support for the British cruisers and destroyers closer to the German coast, in case large units of the High Seas Fleet sortied in response to the British attacks once the tide rose. When the British light forces failed to disengage on schedule at 11:35, the battlecruisers, led by Beatty aboard his flagship, Lion, began to head south at full speed to reinforce the smaller British ships; the rising tide meant that German capital ships would be able to clear the sandbar at the mouth of the Jade estuary.
The brand-new light cruiser Arethusa had been crippled earlier in the battle and was under fire from the German light cruisers SMS Strassburg and SMS Cöln when Beatty's battlecruisers loomed out of the mist at 12:37. By this time, New Zealand had fallen behind the three newer and faster battlecruisers and was not in position to significantly participate in the battle. Strassburg was able to evade fire by hiding in the mists, but Cöln remained visible and was quickly crippled by the British squadron. Before the German ship could be sunk, Beatty was distracted by the sudden appearance of the elderly light cruiser SMS Ariadne off his starboard bow. He turned to pursue, but Ariadne was set afire after only three salvos fired from under 6,000 yards (5,500 m). At 13:10, Beatty turned north and made a general signal to retire. Shortly after turning north, the battlecruisers encountered the crippled Cöln, which was sunk by two salvos from Lion. During the battle, New Zealand's captain, Lionel Halsey, wore the Māori piupiu over his uniform, setting a tradition followed for the duration of the war. Two days after the battle, New Zealand was transferred back to the 1st BCS, when the battlecruiser Inflexible arrived from the Mediterranean
New Zealand became flagship of the 2nd BCS of the Grand Fleet on 15 January 1915. Eight days later, a force of German battlecruisers under the command of Admiral Hipper sortied to clear Dogger Bank of any British fishing boats or small craft that might be there to collect intelligence on German movements. Alerted by decoded German transmissions, a larger force of British battlecruisers, including New Zealand, sailed under the command of Admiral Beatty to intercept. Contact was initiated at 07:20. on the 24th, when Arethusa spotted the German light cruiser SMS Kolberg. By 07:35, the Germans had spotted Beatty's force and Hipper ordered a turn south at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph), believing that this speed would outdistance any British battleships to the north-west; he planned to increase speed to the armoured cruiser SMS Blücher's maximum of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph) if necessary to outrun any battlecruisers.
Beatty ordered his battlecruisers to make all practical speed to catch the Germans before they could escape. New Zealand and Indomitable were the slowest of Beatty's ships, and gradually fell behind the newer battlecruisers, despite New Zealand achieving an indicated speed of 27 knots due to the original overdesign of the engines and to the efforts of her stokers. Despite dropping behind, New Zealand was able to open fire on Blücher by 09:35, and continued to engage the armoured cruiser after the other British battlecruisers had switched targets to the German battlecruisers. After about an hour, New Zealand had knocked out Blücher's forward turret, and Indomitable began to fire on her as well at 10:31. Two 12-inch shells pierced the German ship's armoured deck and exploded in an ammunition room four minutes later. This started a fire amidships that destroyed her two port 21 cm (8.3 in) turrets, while the concussion damaged her engines so that her speed dropped to 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph), and jammed her steering gear. At 10:48, Beatty ordered Indomitable to attack her, but the combination of a signalling error by Beatty's flag lieutenant and heavy damage to Beatty's flagship Lion, which had knocked out her radio and caused enough smoke to obscure her signal halyards, caused the rest of the British battlecruisers, temporarily under the command of Rear Admiral Sir Gordon Moore in New Zealand, to think that that signal applied to them. In response, they turned away from Hipper's main body and engaged Blücher. New Zealand fired 147 shells at Blücher before the German ship capsized and sank at 12:07 after being torpedoed by Arethusa. Other sources dispute the number of shells fired by New Zealand with Wright stating 151 shells (12 shells of common 12-inch and 139 shells of 12-inch high explosive) during the action. Halsey had again worn the piupiu over his uniform during the battle, and the lack of damage to New Zealand was once more attributed to its good luck properties.
New Zealand was relieved by Australia as flagship of the 2nd BCS on 22 February. The squadron joined the Grand Fleet in a sortie on 29 March, in response to intelligence that the German fleet was leaving port as the precursor to a major operation. By the next night, the German ships had withdrawn, and the squadron returned to Rosyth. On 11 April, the British fleet was again deployed on the intelligence that a German force was planning an operation. The Germans intended to lay mines at the Swarte Bank, but after a scouting Zeppelin located a British light cruiser squadron, they began to prepare for what they thought was a British attack. Heavy fog and the need to refuel caused Australia and the British vessels to return to port on 17 April, and although they were redeployed that night, they were unable to stop two German light cruisers from laying the minefield. In June Halsey was promoted to Captain of the fleet with rank of Commodore on HMS Iron Duke and was succeeded as captain of New Zealand by J.F.E. (Jimmy) Green. Despite it being his personal property Halsey left the piupiu in the care of Green.
On the morning of 21 April, the 2nd BCS left Rosyth at 04:00 (accompanied by the 4th Light Cruiser Squadron and destroyers) again bound for the Skagerrak, this time to support efforts to disrupt the transport of Swedish ore to Germany. The planned destroyer sweep of the Kattegat was cancelled when word came that the High Seas Fleet was mobilising for an operation of their own (later learned to be timed to coincide with the Irish Easter Rising), and the British ships were ordered to a rendezvous point in the middle of the North Sea, with the 1st and 3rd Battlecruiser Squadrons while the rest of the Grand Fleet made for the south-eastern end of the Long Forties. At 15:30 on the afternoon of 22 April, the three squadrons of battlecruisers were patrolling together to the north-west of Horn Reefs when heavy fog came down, while the ships were steaming abreast at 19.5 knots, with Australia on the port flank. Concerned about possible submarine attack Beatty issued instructions at 15:35 for the fleet to commence zigzagging. It took some time for the instruction to be relayed by signal flag down the line and so it wasn't until 15:40 that Australia with a cruiser to her port side commenced her first zigzag and swung to starboard. The crew were aware that New Zealand was on that side about five cables (926 metres) away but the poor visibility meant that as they made their turn they didn't see her until it was too late and they hit at 15:43, despite Australia attempting to turn away to port. Australia's side was torn open from frames 59 to 78 by the armour plate on the hull below her sister ships P-turret, while as New Zealand turned away her outer port propeller damaged Australia's hull below her Q-turret.
Australia slowed to half-speed as the mist hid her sister ship, but the damage to New Zealand's propeller caused a temporary loss of control and she swung back in front of Australia which despite turning to port, had her stem crushed at 15:46 as she scraped the side of New Zealand, just behind her P-turret. Both ships to come to a complete stop about 30–40 yd (27–37 m) apart while their respective officers assessed the damage. The damage control teams on the Australia were soon busy storing up bulkheads and sealing off the damage portions to prevent any more water entering the ship. Meanwhile off watch Australian sailors took advantage of a convenient potato locker to hurl both its contents and insults at the crew of their nearby sister ship. New Zealand was soon underway, returning to Rosyth with the rest of the squadron. The same fog caused the battleship Neptune to collide with a merchant ship and the destroyers Ambuscade, Ardent and Garland to collide with one another.
Once it was safe to proceed Australia with her speed restricted to 12, and then later to 16 knots arrived back at Rosyth to find both drydocks occupied, one by New Zealand and the other by HMS Dreadnought so she departed for Newcastle-on-Tyne, where she was further damaged trying to dock during strong winds. As this facility couldn't handle all of the repairs that it needed the battlecruiser was ordered to Devonport. Australia was not able to return to sea until 31 May, thus missing the Battle of Jutland. Meanwhile New Zealand replaced her damaged propeller with Australia's spare propeller which was in store at Rosyth and returned to the fleet on 30 May, a day before the start of the Battle of Jutland. Due to the continued absence of Australia Rear Admiral William Christopher Pakenham transferred his flag from Indefatigable to New Zealand.
On 31 May 1916, the 2nd BCS consisted of its flagship New Zealand and Indefatigable; Australia was still under repair following her collision with New Zealand. The squadron was assigned to Admiral Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet, which had put to sea to intercept a sortie by the High Seas Fleet into the North Sea. The British were able to decode the German radio messages and left their bases before the Germans put to sea. Hipper's battlecruisers spotted the Battlecruiser Fleet to their west at 15:20, but Beatty's ships did not spot the Germans to their east until 15:30. Two minutes later, he ordered a course change to east-south-east to position himself astride the German's line of retreat and called his ships' crews to action stations. He also ordered the 2nd BCS, which had been leading, to fall in astern of the 1st BCS. Hipper ordered his ships to turn to starboard, away from the British, to assume a south-easterly course, and reduced speed to 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) to allow three light cruisers of the 2nd Scouting Group to catch up. With this turn, Hipper was falling back on the High Seas Fleet, then about 60 miles (97 km) behind him. Around this time, Beatty altered course to the east as it was quickly apparent that he was still too far north to cut off Hipper.
Thus began the so-called "Run to the South" as Beatty changed course to steer east-south-east at 15:45, paralleling Hipper's course, now that the range closed to under 18,000 yards (16,000 m). The Germans opened fire first at 15:48, followed by the British. The British ships were still in the process of making their turn, and only the two leading ships, Lion and Princess Royal, had steadied on their course when the Germans opened fire. The British formation was echeloned to the right with Indefatigable in the rear and the furthest to the west, and New Zealand ahead of her and slightly further east. The German fire was accurate from the beginning, but the British overestimated the range as the German ships blended into the haze. Indefatigable aimed at Von der Tann, while New Zealand, disengaged herself, targeted SMS Moltke. By 15:54, the range was down to 12,900 yards (11,800 m) and Beatty ordered a course change two points to starboard to open up the range at 15:57. Indefatigable was destroyed at about 16:03, when her magazines exploded.
After Indefatigable's loss, New Zealand shifted her fire to Von der Tann in accordance with Beatty's standing instructions. The range had grown too far for accurate shooting, so Beatty altered course four points to port to close the range again between 16:12 and 16:15. By this time, the 5th Battle Squadron, consisting of four Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, had closed up and was engaging Von der Tann and Moltke. At 16:23, a 13.5-inch (340 mm) shell from Tiger struck near Von der Tann's rear turret, starting a fire among the practice targets stowed there that completely obscured the ship and caused New Zealand to shift fire to Moltke.At 16:26, the ship was hit by a 28-centimetre (11 in) shell, fired by Von der Tann, on 'X' barbette that detonated on contact and knocked loose a piece of armour that briefly jammed 'X' turret and blew a hole in the upper deck. Four minutes later, Southampton, scouting in front of Beatty's ships, spotted the lead elements of the High Seas Fleet charging north at top speed. Three minutes later, she sighted the topmasts of Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer's battleships, but did not transmit a message to Beatty for another five minutes. Beatty continued south for another two minutes to confirm the sighting himself before ordering a sixteen-point turn to starboard in succession. New Zealand, the last ship in the line, turned prematurely to stay outside the range of the oncoming battleships.
New Zealand was straddled several times by the battleship SMS Prinzregent Luitpold but was not hit. Beatty's ships maintained full speed in an attempt to increase the distance between them and the High Seas Fleet, and gradually moved out of range. They turned north and then north-east to try to rendezvous with the main body of the Grand Fleet. At 17:40, they opened fire again on the German battlecruisers. The setting sun blinded the German gunners, and as they could not make out the British ships, they turned away to the north-east at 5:47. Beatty gradually turned more towards the east to allow him to cover the deployment of the Grand Fleet in battle formation and to move ahead of it, but he mistimed his manoeuvre and forced the leading division to fall off towards the east, further away from the Germans. By 18:35, Beatty was following Indomitable and Inflexible of the 3rd BCS as they were steering east-south-east, leading the Grand Fleet, and continuing to engage Hipper's battlecruisers to their south-west. A few minutes earlier, Scheer had ordered a simultaneous 180° starboard turn and Beatty lost sight of the High Seas Fleet in the haze. Twenty minutes later, Scheer ordered another 180° turn which put them on a converging course again with the British, which had altered course to the south. This allowed the Grand Fleet to cross Scheer's T, forming a battle line that cut across his battle line and badly damaging his leading ships. Scheer ordered yet another 180° turn at 19:13 in an attempt to extricate the High Seas Fleet from the trap into which he had sent them.
This was successful, and the British lost sight of the Germans until 8:05, when Castor spotted smoke bearing west-north-west. Ten minutes later, she had closed the range enough to identify German torpedo boats, and engaged them. Beatty turned west upon hearing gunfire and spotted the German battlecruisers only 8,500 yards (7,800 m) away. Inflexible opened fire at 20:20, followed by the rest of Beatty's battlecruisers. New Zealand and Indomitable concentrated their fire on SMS Seydlitz, and hit her five times before she turned west to disengage. Shortly after 20:30, the pre-dreadnought battleships of Rear Admiral Mauve's II Battle Squadron were spotted and fire switched to them. The Germans had poor visibility and were able to fire only a few rounds at them before turning away to the west. The British battlecruisers hit the German ships several times before they blended into the haze around 8:40. After this, Beatty changed course to south-south-east and maintained that course, ahead of both the Grand Fleet and the High Seas Fleet, until 02:55 the next morning, when the order was given to reverse course and head home.
New Zealand arrived back in Rosyth on 2 June and dropped anchor at 09:55. The crew had approximately 50 minutes rest before, with the potential possibly that she may have to put to sea again, they began the task of refuelling with 1,178 tons of coal and then replenishing the ammunition with 480 twelve-inch shells, work which continued until 03:30 on the following morning.
New Zealand fired 430 twelve-inch shells during the battle, 100 from A-turret, 129 from P-turret, 105 from Q-turret and 96 from X-turret, more than any other ship on either side. Despite this rate of fire, only four successful hits were credited to her: three on Seydlitz and one on the pre-dreadnought SMS Schleswig-Holstein. This gave a hit rate of less than one per cent. Other than the single hit on X-turret the only other damage was from near misses and was minimal, consisting of a shell through the silk jack, a splinter hitting the ensign staff, the No.3 cutter had some damage to its bow and the No.2 picket boat was hit in three places. This confirmed to the crew that the piupiu and hei-tiki worn by Captain Green, brought good luck.
During the later part of 1915, Hatherley had seen service ashore on the Western Front, for gallantry ashore he would be awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in the London Gazette of 21st January 1916 the citation reading: ‘For gallant conduct at the Quarries near Vermelles on December 30th 1915. The detachment of a Machine Gun having all become casualties owing to shell fire, this Petty Officer, assisted by Petty Officer W. Bright, voluntarily manned the gun and brought in into action again, thereby materially assisting to repulse a German attack.’
Very few Distinguished Service Medals were awarded to the Regulating Branch in WW1, two only to Ship’s Corporals including Hatherley and six to Masters at Arms.
Photographs of both Hatherley and Bright were published in the War Illustrated, 13th May 1916, with the captions ‘Petty Officer W. Bright and Ship’s Corporal W.C. Hatherley, both awarded the D.S.M. while visiting the front line trenches, seeing a gun-team knocked out, they manned the gun at once and kept it in action most successfully.’
He would advance to Master-At-Arms in July 1917, and would return ashore on 23rd July 1918, before later seeing service with H.M.S. Ramilles from 13th May 1919 until 2nd September 1921, he would then join the training ship H.M.S. Pomone on 9th September 1921 and would later be discharged to pension on 11th March 1922.
Additionally entitled to the 1914-1915 Star.
