The good Great War Adriatic and West Africa, inter-war submariner and Spanish Civil War destroyer service, Second World War Atlantic. Norway and Dunkirk Evacuation survivor of the loss of the destroyer Basilisk and long service group awarded to Temporary Petty Officer S.R. Jeffery, Royal Navy. From Redruth, Cornwall, he saw continuous service between March 1916 and October 1946 and covering both world wars. By the outbreak of the Second World War he was with the destroyer Basilisk and initially performed duties escorting convoys and patrolling in the English Channel and the North Sea. With the Norwegian Campaign, she escorted the battleship Resolution to Narvik on 24 April, and then escorted the troopship Empress of Australia, before supporting the Allied landings on 12–13 May at Bjerkvik during the Battle of Narvik. Owing to the fall of France, from 30 May she supported the evacuation from Dunkirk, and made two trips to Dover during the following day and evacuated a total of 695 men. Basilisk returned to La Panne to load more troops on the morning of 1 June and was attacked three times by German bombers. One bomb from the first wave detonated inside the No. 3 boiler room, killed all of her boiler and engine room personnel, fractured her steam lines and knocked out all her machinery. Near misses from the same attack buckled the sides of her hull and her upper deck. The ship's torpedoes and depth charges were jettisoned to reduce top-weight and the French fishing trawler Jolie Mascotte attempted to tow Basilisk. A second attack caused no further damage, but caused the French ship to drop the tow. The third attack around noon sank Basilisk in shallow water of Nieuwpoort. Jolie Mascotte and the destroyer Whitehall rescued eight officers and 123 crewmen from the ship, one of whom was Jeffery. From January 1941 until mid 1944 he was aboard the armed merchant cruiser Cilicia, initially on the Northern and Western Patrol,and from May 1943 with the West Africa Command.
Group of 7: British War Medal and Victory Medal; (J.51903 S.R. JEFFERY. A.B. R.N.); 1939-1945 Star; Atlantic Star; Defence Medal; War Medal; Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, GVR Coinage bust; (J.51903 S.R. JEFFERY. A.B. H.M.S. VIVID.), mounted swing style as worn.
Condition: light contact wan and light polishing to first two and last, overall Very Fine.
Stephen Redvers Jeffery was born on 23 May 1900 in Redruth, Cornwall, and having worked as a blacksmiths apprentice, with the ongoing Great War, he then entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class (Devonport No.J.51903) with Impregnable from 17 March 1916, and then joined the battleship Africa from 5 September 1916, and then remained with her for the duration of the war, being rated as an Ordinary Seaman on 23 May 1918 and as an Able Seaman on 19 October 1918. Late in 1916, Africa was attached to the 2nd Detached Squadron, then serving in the Adriatic Sea. In 1917, she was sent to the 9th Cruiser Squadron, based in Sierra Leone; while she was there, her crew was stricken with Spanish flu. Jeffery was posted to Vivid I from 8 November 1918, and then joined the cruiser and training ship Cornwall from 25 January 1919, and was with the cruiser Highflyer from September 1919, she being the flagship on the East Indies Station. Jeffery went on to serve in the Seaman Gunnery Branch, and was aboard the aircraft tender Pegasus in the Mediterranean from November 1921 until December 1923.
In February 1928 Jeffery joined the Submarine Service with Dolphin as ‘spare crew’ and was with the depot ship Lucia as ‘spare crew’ from April 1928, and then saw service aboard the submarine L53 from 26 June until 9 November 1928 when he rejoined Dolphin as ‘spare crew’. Then from 9 December 1928 he was aboard the submarine K26, before rejoining Dolphin as ‘spare crew’ from 10 December 1929. Next aboard the submarine L22 from 30 January 1930, he was with Dolphin as ‘spare crew’ from 15 February 1930, and was then with the depot ship Cyclops as ‘spare crew’ from 22 May 1930, and was then aboard the submarine L26 from 21 June 1930, being with her until sent back for General Service when he re-joined Vivid I in January 1933.
Jeffery was awarded the Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal whilst with Vivid I on 1 June 1933. He was on service ashore with the exception of his time spent aboard the destroyer Echo from October 1934 until April 1935, and then joined the destroyer Acasta at Malta and saw service with her from July 1935 until January 1938. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, between September 1936 and April 1937, Acasta spent time aiding refugees and making non-intervention patrols in Spanish waters.
After some service ashore, Jeffery rejoined Acasta in February 1939 and in the following month joined the destroyer Basilisk, which was assigned as the emergency destroyer at Devonport, he being still aboard this vessel when with the outbreak of the war she was assigned to the 19th Destroyer Flotilla. Basilisk spent the next two months escorting convoys and patrolling in the English Channel and the North Sea. The ship and her sister Blanche were escorting the minelayer Adventure on the morning of 13 November in the Thames Estuary when they entered a minefield laid the night before by several German destroyers. Adventure and Blanche both struck mines; the latter lost all power and later capsized whilst under tow. Basilisk continued to escort convoys and patrol until April 1940 when the Norwegian Campaign began. On 24 April, the ship, together with the destroyers Wren and Hesperus, escorted the battleship Resolution to Narvik on 24 April. In early May, she escorted the troopship Empress of Australia to Norway. Basilisk supported the Allied landings on 12–13 May at Bjerkvik during the Battle of Narvik.
The ship was transferred from the Western Approaches Command on 30 May to support the evacuation from Dunkirk. She made two trips to Dover during the following day and evacuated a total of 695 men. Basilisk returned to La Panne to load more troops on the morning of 1 June and was attacked three times by German bombers. One bomb from the first wave detonated inside the No. 3 boiler room, killed all of her boiler and engine room personnel, fractured her steam lines and knocked out all her machinery. Near misses from the same attack buckled the sides of her hull and her upper deck. The ship's torpedoes and depth charges were jettisoned to reduce top-weight and the French fishing trawler Jolie Mascotte attempted to tow Basilisk. A second attack caused no further damage, but caused the French ship to drop the tow. The third attack around noon sank Basilisk in shallow water of Nieuwpoort. Jolie Mascotte and the destroyer Whitehall rescued eight officers and 123 crewmen from the ship. Whitehall then destroyed the wreck with gunfire and torpedoes.
Jeffery was once of those 123 crewmen who were rescued from Basilisk, and he was posted to Drake I from 2 June 1940, and then joined Drake 4 for service aboard the destroyer Mansfield from 12 October 1940, and joined her at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she had just been commissioned after being exchanged from the United States Navy. He was part of the crew who then sailed her across the Atlantic, she being then handed across to the Royal Norwegian Navy and Jeffery was posted back to Drake I from 16 December 1940. Jeffery was then posted aboard the armed merchant cruiser Cilicia from 4 January 1941. The Cilicia was a former Anchor Line passenger ship, that at the time he joined her, was employed on the Northern and Western Patrol. Jeffery was with her when rated as an Acting Leading Seaman on 26 November 1942, and then as a temporary Acting Petty Officer on 26 May 1943 in which month she joined the West Africa Command. On 16 February 1944, Cilicia was returned and used as troopship by the Ministry of War Transport through until 1946. Jeffery was with the shore establishment Raleigh when he was confirmed as a temporary Petty Officer on 26 May 1944, and was released from service on 8 October 1946. He died in Truro in Cornwall in 1979.
