Remarks: Acting Engine Room Artificer 4th Class P/MX 63555. (Missing presumed Killed 23.10.41) Age 22 (single) Son of Thomas James and Hannah Elizabeth of Leadgate, Co Durham

Remarks: Acting Cook.Cook(s) RNSR. P/SR 51740. (Born Lanark) (Missing presumed killed 23.10.41) (married to Helen C. of Portobello, Edinburgh)

Remarks: Leading Stoker. October 1939 to March 1940?

Remarks: Able Seaman. October 1939 to March 1940?

Remarks: Ordinary Seaman. P/JX 274365. (Survivor discharged to HMS Victory taking passage in HMS Rodney)

Remarks: Lt. Commander DSC (1940 New Years Honours List) Joined L03 January 1940. Left March 1940)
Royal Humane Society’s Bronze Medal and Certificate 16.2.40. for rescue of German Sailor from the sea. Other ships include SPEY (Sunk U406 and U386 on same day and gained DSO) KENT, CARLISE, OSPREY, AFRIDI, WARSPITE, TAFF. (Mentioned in Despatches for sinking U-boat) ST KITTS. Joined the RN as a Cadet in 1923. Left RN as a Captain. Married in 1948 to Susan Williams who died in 1974 – son and daughter. Married second wife Avril Moat 1985. Born 27 September 1909. Died 1992 aged 83

Extract from Spink Catalogue 25 April 2013
D.S.O. London Gazette 6.6.1944 Commander Gerald Anthony Gore Ormsby, D.S.C., Royal Navy (Richmond) ‘For outstanding leadership, skill and devotion to duty in H.M. Ships...Spey...in successful actions with U-Boats, while on convoy escort duty in the Atlantic.’ D.S.C. London Gazette 1.1.1940 Lieutenant-Commander Gerald Anthony Gore Ormsby, R.N., H.M.S. Afridi ‘For outstanding zeal, proficiency, skill and energy in successfully combating enemy submarines.’ Ormsby is jointly commended with Leading Seamen P.J. Coan (awarded a D.S.M. for the same action) and A.B. Wyatt in The Captain of 4th Destroyer Flotilla Confidential Report, 24.10.1939, which includes the following detail ‘H.M.S. Afridi, Gurkha, Hastings, Woolston and Valorous. Attacks on German U-Boats on the 13th, 16th and 18th October 1939...Assessment Committee consider that attacks were carried out on a U-Boat, that was probably sunk. On 13th October off Beachy Head several tons of oil was released. On 16th October there was much oil, but darkness curtailed further observation. On 18th October the quantity of oil was small, 5 or 6 acres, but the supply was from a fixed point continuous and increasing.

I desire to bring to your notice that these successes arise directly from the skill and zeal of my Anti-Submarine Officer, Lieutenant-Commander G.A.G. Ormsby, and are the good results of his careful training of the A/S ratings. Leading Seaman P.J. Coan (H.S.D.), P/J. 56312, is a very experienced and zealous operator, and his knowledge and experience played an essential part in the attacks on these three U-Boats. The first contact on 13th October off Beachy Head was obtained at 2300 yards at 22.5 knots by Able Seaman A. Wyatt (S.D.), P/SS.X.19962, 1st Operator, and Leading Seaman Coan, 2nd Operator, and I consider that the detection, classification and holding of the contact without hesitation was a notable achievement: Any hesitation would almost certainly have caused it to have been passed as one of the numerous wrecks in the vicinity. In the attack on 16th October in the Firth of Forth and on 18th October off St. Abbs Head contacts were obtained by Wyatt and Coan respectively, and with a confidence and lack of hesitation which is essential to A/S operations, but not always available. The wrecks of the last war which litter our coastal waters demand extra skill in quick classification of contacts, or else the service on which the ship is employed would be continuously delayed and the U-boats left more free.’ M.I.D. London Gazette 13.2.1945 Commander Gerald Anthony Gore Ormsby, D.S.O., D.S.C., Royal Navy (H.M.S. Taff) ‘For courage, leadership and determination in anti U-boat operations.’

Captain Gerald Anthony Gore Ormsby, D.S.O., D.S.C., born Dublin, 1909; entered the Royal Navy as Cadet at Dartmouth, 1923; appointed Midshipman H.M.S. Kent (Cruiser), on the China station before being posted to the cruiser Carlisle, ‘for service on the African station, where he was involved in an affair which caused something of a stir. Tshekedi Khama, the Regent of the Bamangwato tribe of the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana), was an African chieftain of rather too independent views to suit the British colonial authorities.

In September 1933 he broke the law of the Territory by ordering a white man to be flogged after a dispute concerning a native woman with whom the white man had been living. The High Commissioner was on leave, and the Acting High Commissioner, the C-in-C Africa station, Adml. Sir Edward Evans (Evans of the Broke) dispatched what amounted to a Naval Brigade on the Victorian Navy pattern. Nine officers, including Ormsby, and 150 sailors and marines from Carlisle, with three howitzers, six Lewis guns, 100 rifles and supplies for three weeks, travelled 1,100 miles up country by train, lorry and finally on foot. Evans himself arrived in state to hold a formal hearing under a fig tree, attended by a contingent of tribesmen, who were over-awed by the regal trappings of the Royal Marines. The tribesmen had been relieved of their guns by Carlisle’s sailors, who gave them all a cloakroom ticket so that they could reclaim their firearms later. Khama was deposed, but later reinstated’ (Obituary included in lot refers); served at H.M.S. Osprey (Anti-Submarine Training Establishment), Portland, from 1937; qualified as Anti-Submarine Officer, and with the outbreak of the Second War was posted to H.M.S. Afridi (Destroyer); the latter formed part of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla and was assigned for service with the Humber Force in the North Sea; Ormsby was quickly into action in October, and was involved in attacks on three U-boats over the course of five days, one of which is believed to have been sunk (D.S.C.); Ormsby was appointed Lieutenant-Commander and Anti-Submarine Officer to the Afridi’s sister ship H.M.S. Cossack, January 1940.
U-boat Hunter Ormsby joined the Anti-Submarine Warfare Division in the Admiralty, before being appointed Anti-Submarine Officer to H.M.S. Warspite (battleship), Mediterranean station,1941; appointed to the command of H.M.S. Pheasant (Sloop - converted into a specialised convoy defence vessel, with antiaircraft and anti-submarine capability), and ‘then served three extremely hard years as an escort captain in the Atlantic. During that time he had no leave and, when at sea, never a complete night’s sleep, snatching an hour when he could in a hammock in the chart-house’ (Obituary refers); appointed to the command of H.M.S. Spey (Frigate) and in her led the 10th Support Group on anti-submarine operations in the Western Approaches; his expertise on submarines came to the fore when leading his group in the defence of the outward bound Atlantic convoy ONS29, on the evening of the 18/19th February 1944; Roskill offers the following in The War at Sea, ‘Late on the 15th [February] another outward bound convoy, actually OS68 though the enemy believed it to be ON224, was reported by aircraft off north-west Ireland. No less than twenty U-boats were ordered to close towards it; but, as had happened so often before, the Luftwaffe found it impossible to keep in constant touch with their quarry. The first two Ju.290s to be sent out on the 16th were shot down by Fleet Air Arm fighters and Coastal Command’s interception patrols, and the result was that the convoy was not reported again until late in the afternoon. The enemy thereupon decided to attack during the night of the 17th18th and concentrated a score of U-boats in lines three deep across its path. As, however, their night air reconnaissance failed, the U-boats did not receive the expected homing signals. In fact there were two convoys approaching the enemy concentration, for ONS29 was about 150 miles southwest of ON224, and the latter was overtaking the former. The threat to them both had not gone unobserved in London; strong air cover was being continuously provided by Coastal Command, and three escort group had been diverted.... the 2nd and 7th Escort Groups, with Walker in command, were sent to reinforce ON224, while the 10th Group joined up with ONS29. The former convoy was also diverted further to the south during the night of the 17th-18th; but all this remained hidden from the enemy until late on the 18th, because his air searches had once again failed. When the German wireless-interception revealed ON224’s diversion on the afternoon of the 18th, they sent the U-boats in pursuit. At 3.20 the 10th Escort Group obtained contact near ONS29, and the frigate Spey sank U406. Among the forty-five survivors was a party of scientists embarked to investigate radar counter-measures, and from them we gained valuable information on enemy progress in that technique. By the small hours of the 19th the two convoys ON224 and ONS29 were not far apart, and the U-boats were still pursuing them. Liberators forced several of them down that night. At daylight Walker decided to sweep back along the convoy track to seek enemies whose presence had been detected earlier. At 10am the Woodpecker obtained a contact, and after a seven-hour hunt she and the Starling forced U264 to surface and abandon ship...That same afternoon the 10th Escort Group, which was on its way to join ON224, added to the score by sinking U386.’ Ormsby initially engaged U386 with depth charges, forcing her to the surface about 800 yards from his frigate, ‘As H.M.S. Spey altered course to close and opened fire with all guns, the U-boat started to proceed ahead. At the same time the enemy returned the frigate’s fire, until a shallow pattern of depth charges, fired by H.M.S. Spey, straddled the U-boat. Soon afterwards, several members of the crew were seen abandoning ship. Meanwhile, the enemy, which was down by the stern and badly damaged by the frigate’s gunfire, continued to go ahead. H.M.S. Spey obtained many more hits with her 4in. guns and close-range armament. A few minutes later another party of men emerged from the conning-tower hatch of the U-boat and jumped into the sea. Shortly afterwards the bows of the U-boat reared out of the water and the enemy sank stern first. Commander Ormsby commented that the crew of the second U-boat “showed considerable courage in attempting to man their guns in the face of a hail of Oerlikon and pom-pom fire and several 4in. hits” (Newspaper cutting included in lot refers); Admiral Sir Max Horton, the C-in-C Western Approaches wrote on Ormsby’s report of proceedings: “This is how things should be done”, and Ormsby was awarded the D.S.O. The Indian Ocean - A New Hunting Ground Ormsby was appointed to the command of H.M.S. Taff (frigate), May 1944; from her he commanded the 60th Escort Group as part of the East Indies Fleet; the latter was involved in the sinking of U198, off the Seychelles, 12.8.1944; Ormsby was Mentioned in Despatches for this before taking part in the rescue of the crew of the merchantman Troilus, 10.9.1944; the day before the Troilus had been torpedoed and sunk by U859 300 miles north-east of Socotra Island; working in conjunction with H.M.S. Nadder 95 survivors of the attack were rescued; Ormsby relinquished his command of the Taff in June 1945, and qualified as a Torpedo Anti-Submarine (TAS) Officer; he served at the Anti-Submarine Warfare Division of the Admiralty before commanding H.M.S. St. Kitts (Destroyer), 1950-1951; in 1954 ‘he joined the NATO Staff at Fontainebleu, near Paris. His final appointment before his retirement in 1959 was as employment development officer, with the task of finding suitable jobs in commerce and industry for the numerous officers who were leaving the Navy under the “Golden Bowler” scheme. Ormsby then became Director of Studies at Greenlands Administrative Staff College, at Henley on Thames. In 1977 he was a member of the working party which set up the Sue Ryder home in the house at Nettlebed, Oxon, formerly owned by Peter Fleming and Celia Johnson.

In 1979 he became its first Administrator and Chairman of the house committee’ (Obituary refers).

Gallery:

Remarks: Leading Stoker. October 1939 to March 1940?

Remarks: Yeoman of Signals. January 1939 to March 1940?

Remarks: Lt. October 1939 to March 1940?

Remarks: Joined RN 6.9.38 VICTORY as Ordinary Seaman.
28.4.39 FURY. 1.2.40. Able Seaman
30.7.40 COSSACK as Able Seaman.
27.8.41 OSPREY.
7.11.41 DOUGLAS.
19.9.42 VICTORY.
6.10.42 OSPREY.
12.12.42 NIMROD.
16.1.43 OSPREY.
9.2.43 DEVERON.
20.2.43 Acting Leading Seaman Temp.
3.4.44 Acting Petty Officer Temp.
26.4.44 OSPPREY.
5..8.44 NIMROD.
26.8.44 OSPREY.
21.9.44 CHEVIOT.
3.4.45 Petty Officer Temp.
10.10.45 OSPREY.
27.12.45 Released Class A.
Joined Merchant Navy.
Married in 1947 and gave up seafaring in June 1948
Died 3 February 2006