Victory Medal
Air Mechanic 1st Class Alfred Charles Cruse, Royal Air Force (Royal Naval Air Service)
Alfred Charles Cruse was born on the 21st of February 1895 in Bermondsey, London, and worked as a motor body builder before service, which began on the 21st of January 1916 on the HMS President II (a Dormitory ship on the Hamble, a Royal Navy Doterel-class screw sloop-of-war originally on 31 August 1878).
He then served on the Ben-my-Chree from the 15th of February 1916 to the 31st of January 1917, a British packet steamer which served as a seaplane carrier in the Royal Navy. She was sunk by Ottoman artillery fire while anchored at the recently occupied island of Kastellorizo on 11 January 1917, with five members of her crew being injured. The ship was salvaged in 1920 and broken up in 1923. Ben-my-Chree was the only aviation vessel of either side sunk by enemy action during the war.
After the sinking of the Ben-my-Chree, he transferred to the HMS Exmouth (Duncan-class pre-dreadnought battleship) from the 1st of February 1917 to the 31st of March 1918. The HMS Exmouth transferred to the East Indies Station in March 1917, where she performed convoy escort duties in the Indian Ocean between Colombo and Bombay. In June 1917, she ended this service to return to the United Kingdom, calling at Zanzibar, the Cape and Sierra Leone during the voyage. She arrived at Devonport in August 1917 and provided crews for antisubmarine vessels.
After the war, he worked as a musician in the Theatre Royal in Bognor Regis. He died in 1963.
Correctly impressed:
211113. 1.A.M. A. C. CRUSE. R. A. F.
Condition:
Excellent
