Victory Medal awarded to Stoker 1st Class J.H. Smetherham, Royal Navy who saw wartime service aboard H.M.S. Concord as part of the Harwich Force and was still aboard when the Concord delivered Ignacy Jan Paderewski who would form the first Cabinet of the re-born Poland to Gdansk on 25th December 1918.
Victory Medal; (K.35327 J.H. SMETHERHAM. STO.1 R.N.)
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine
John Henry Smetherham was born at Liskeard, Cornwall on 24th March 1884, an agricultural labourer he joined the Royal Navy for hostilities on 3rd August 1916, his seaborne service was aboard H.M.S. Concord as a Stoker 2nd Class and later Stoker 1st Class between 18th December 1916 and 20th March 1919 when he was demobilised ashore.
Upon being commissioned into the Royal Navy in December 1916, Concord was assigned to the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron, which operated as part of Harwich Force in the North Sea to defend the eastern approaches to the Strait of Dover and English Channel. She remained in the squadron through the end of the war in November 1918 and until March 1919. After the Armistice she visited the Baltic, where her duties included a courtesy visit with Cardiff to Copenhagen in December 1918, and liberating British prisoners of war from Danzig on 25 December 1918 and from Stettin on 1 January 1919.
On 25 December 1918 Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Polish pianist and composer, a member of the Polish National Committee re-organising Polish state after 123 years of partitions, arrived at Gdańsk (Danzig) on board HMS Concord on his way to Poznań and Warsaw. He formed the first Cabinet of the re-born Poland which on 26 January 1919 organised the first elections.