The rare Great War North Sea 12th Submarine Flotilla Scapa Flow K-Class submarine operations 1917 Distinguished Service Medal group awarded to Stoker Petty Officer A. Sleeman, Royal Navy. Sleeman from Bodmin, Cornwall, was one of only a relatively small number of K-Class submariners to be decorated during the war when serving aboard the ill-fated K-Class submarines, his award being for ‘for services in submarines in enemy waters’ and gazetted in November 1917, he having been with K8 from April 1917 when operating out of Scapa Flow and attempting to screen the Grand Fleet. Prior to this he had seen service in support of operations in the Dardanelles and the Mediterranean.
Group of 4: Distinguished Service Medal, GVR Adm. bust; (287333. A. SLEEMAN, STO. P.O. SUBMARINE SERVICE 1917.); 1914-1915 Star; (287333. A. SLEEMAN, S.P.O., R.N.); British War Medal and Victory Medal; (287333 A. SLEEMAN. S.P.O. R.N.)
Condition: Good Very Fine.
Arthur Sleeman was born on 5th January 1879 in Bodmin, Cornwall, and having worked as a labourer, then joined the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class (Devonport No.287333) with Vivid II from 14th February 1898, being rated as a Stoker whilst with Nile on 1st May 1899. After a period of service afloat and ashore, Sleeman then became one of the very early members of what was then the fledgling Submarine Service when he joined the depot ship Thames on 3rd June 1905. The Submarine Service had been in existence since 1900 when five submarines were ordered by the Royal Navy, but was only starting to build momentum and men at around the time that Sleeman joined.
Thames had been a submarine depot ship since July 1903 and he then transferred to the submarine depot ship Forth from 1st July 1905, which had been converted to this role in August 1904. He was with Forth when he was rated as an Acting Leading Stoker 2nd Class on 1st May 1906, promoted to Acting Stoker Petty Officer 2nd Class on 1st July 1906, confirmed in the rank of Stoker Petty Officer on 12th September 1907, disrated to Leading Stoker on 20th November 1907, and promoted back to Stoker Petty Officer on 18th March 1909.
Posted out of the Submarine Service when he joined Vivid II from August 1910, he saw service aboard the light cruiser Gloucester from October 1910 to June 1912 when with the Home Fleet, and then rejoined the Submarine Service on being posted back to Forth in June 1912, but in October of that year sailed for the Mediterranean aboard the cruiser Eclipse and then joined the base ship Egmont at Malta from October 1913 to October 1914, being therefore out there at Malta on the outbreak of the Great War. He then transferred to the Mediterranean based destroyer depot ship Blenheim from 1st November 1914, before transferring to the submarine depot ship Adamant from 1st April 1915, this being the depot ship for the Eastern Mediterranean Submarine Squadron, which operated the E-Class submarines out of Mudros for operations in the Dardanelles.
Sleeman was posted back to Egmont at Malta from 13th September 1915, and then joined the battleship Queen which was then in the Mediterranean and the Adriatic. Sleeman was posted back home to Dolphin at Portsmouth for service aboard the submarine B1 from 1st January 1916. This vessel was a very early submarine and was too primitive for operational service, being instead relegated to training duties. Sleeman transferred to the submarine depot ship Titania from 18th February 1916, she being the depot ship to the Eleventh Submarine Flotilla at Blyth for operations in the North Sea. He was aboard a submarine with this posting, however its details are obscured in the records, and he then transferred back to Dolphin from 15th April 1916, and then to the submarine depot ship Maidstone from 25th September 1916, once again working with submarine operations in the North Sea as part of the 9th Submarine Flotilla at Harwich. He then rejoined Dolphin from 20th March 1917.
Sleeman was then transferred to the submarine flotilla cruiser Fearless for service with the Twelfth Submarine Flotilla at Scapa Flow, this being a formation that would attempt to screen the Grand Fleet with the ill-fated “K” class submarines. The formation would grow in size to as many as eight of these steam powered submarines, and two would be lost to collision during the war. As such Sleeman joined the submarine K8 from 2nd April 1917 which vessel has a complement of fifty-nine crew members and had a length of 338 feet. As such he saw service aboard her in the North Sea when under the command of Lieutenant Commander R.R. Turner.
For his services aboard K8, Sleeman became one of only a small number of K-Class crewmen to be awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, his award being announced in Admiralty Orders No.3998 and published in the London Gazette for 2nd November 1917, being awarded ‘for services in submarines in enemy waters.’
Sleeman transferred with K8 to Rosyth for service from the submarine depot ship Royal Arthur from 1st October 1918, before being posted off her and back to Dolphin from 8th October 1919, and then to transferred to the submarine depot ship Lucia from 18th November 1919, before being posted to Vivid II from 11th March 1920 and discharged ashore on 20th March 1920. Confirmed as his full entitlement, and with a copied image of the officers and crew of K8, amongst whom Sleeman is presumed to be.
