Medals of Oldham WWII Navy veteran go up for auction

Jack 'Spud' Yates, who was born in Oldham on September 13, 1918, accumulated four impressive medals during his service in the Royal Navy, including an extremely rare Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.

Researchers have unearthed Jack's incredible battles and bravery at sea from his first-hand written accounts and recognitions he received through despatches, which include rescuing men at sea, finding lost ships against the odds and enduring battles against much larger, powerful enemy German and Japanese warships.

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He received his rarest medal, and was one of 72 people in World War Two to receive the recognition, after he miraculously survived a shell and spared his ship from a potentially disastrous end, despite suffering intense injuries.

Now, the veteran's collection has been brought to auction by Noonans, and could sell for up to £16,000 via The Saleroom this February 14.

Jack 'Spud' Yates - from Oldham to the Royal Navy 

Records reveal Jack was given the nickname 'Spud', "for some inexplicable reason" when he joined the Royal Navy in the late 1930s and first went to war aboard the H.M.S Halcyon which swept for mines and escorted merchant ships to safety in north Russia.

After the evacuation of Dunkirk, Halcyon picked up 2,271 troops and returned to mine clearing where she suffered almost daily attacks. 

In October 1941, she returned home to be fitted out for Arctic service and Jack took the opportunity to take his leave to marry an Oldham woman.

Rescue missions aboard the Halcyon 

Two months later, the ship took sail - but it was in the summer of 1942 when Halcyon and Jack, who was now a Leading Sailor, assisted in the escort of 35 merchant ships in convoy to Archangel, despite heavy air attacks.

The attacks sunk two merchantmen and the mission was almost withdrawn as the convoy believed German warships had emerged from their defences to attack.

The convoy was ordered to "disperse" to Russian ports, followed by another order 13 minutes later to "scatter" - which was understood by the convoy that the merchant ships would be "massacred".

However, H.M.S. Palomares, which had anti-aircraft abilities but no protection against submarines, remained and asked Halcyon and another minesweeper to escort her to Novaya Zemlya.

Despite heavy air attacks, the convoy reached its destination and fought again through to Archangel, arriving on July 11.

Saving Samuel Chase

Halcyon also performed two major rescues, including a large American ship, Samuel Chase, which had been "drifting helplessly" after suffering "two direct hits, three near misses" and had a broken main steam line.

Samuel Chase was ready to abandon ship when Halcyon's skipper signalled that it would take the ship in tow - which it did and gradually helped the merchantman to move and get its engines going, right before enemy dive bombers arrived.

When Halycon docked at Archangel on July 11, it discovered that just five ships had arrived safe, though six more reached Russia in the following days.

This meant an eyewatering 23 ships had been sunk and hundreds of seamen were dead or drifting in small boats.

Its second dramatic rescue effort took place 400 miles high up in the Barents Sea in mid-July 1942 where the Halcyon was searching for survivors of three rafts.

It had just nine days to complete the mission - three days to reach the area, three days to look for the rafts and three days to return.

Records reveal crew members on the Halcyon were "badly strained and tired after the dramas of the past two weeks" as "no one had more than four hours sleep and most were beginning to feel downhearted".

On the last day of the search, a black Arctic fog descended but in the final 15 minutes a "miracle" happened: the fog lifted and the rafts appeared, crammed with 30 surviving men.

Jack was mentioned in despatches in recognition of his contribution to the successful rescues.

"David and Goliath" conflict aboard the Saumarez

In 1943, Jack moved to a newly built destroyer, H.M.S Saumarez, and was promoted from Leading Stoker to Stoker Petty Officer.

Here, he saw action again as a convoy escort on the Artic run in the Battle of North Cape.

On Boxing Day, H.M.S Duke of York hit the German battle-cruiser, Scharnhorst, but the Germans hit back hard and disabled the Duke of York's fire control radar.

Saumarez then stepped in and fired its guns and torpedos "continuously" for 11 minutes and while a shell killed 11 men on Jack's ship, the cruisers sank the enemy just three hours after the first sighting.

Jack later described the battle as a "David and Goliath" encounter which helped the crew ahead of its next 'epic' fight with the Japanese heavy cruiser, Haguro.

Jack's account of events reads: "I won't say the ship was agog with excitement because by this time most of the crew were hardened war veterans.

"The majority having been aboard during the Scharnhorst incident."

Jack was involved in many battles at sea (Image: Noonans)

A sole survivor in the Battle in the Malacca Straits

Records suggest Jack was present during D-Day landings in Normandy in June 1944.

And it was in 1945 when Saumarez faced off against Haguro, one of the largest, most heavily armed cruisers ever built, in the Malacca Straits.

Haguro weighed more than twice as much as all five ships it faced on May 15 and had already survived several great battles in the Pacific.

It was also known that survivors from Japanese warships either attacked their rescuers or committed suicide.

Jack would later state the crew were made aware "something was about to happen" as Chief Stoker Cadwallader informed the watch that anti-flash gear and gloves were to be worn by all men going below.

Jack added: "[He] threatened “castration” to any man found disobeying this order, a precaution which in due course proved to be the best possible advice."

Meanwhile, Jack and three others, Stoker Marten, Stoker 'Ginger' Elliot and Stoker 'Jock' Hendren, went into the hot, cramped and noisy Number 1 boiler room.

An account from Commander Denis Calnan described a night of dramatic action as the battle took place in a violent lightning storm.

The Commander said: "I was conscious that the familiar crack of our 4.7s and the thump-thump-thump of my own guns were being blotted out by a gigantic hammering storm of tremendous noise, drowning all speech and sense. 

"Haguro was firing at us, point-blank, with her main armament, opening with a full ten-gun broadside. 

"Haguro’s salvos were pitching short and over, and the tons of water thrown up were swamping the upper deck."

The commander said he caught a "glimpse" of the "shining wet side of Haguro" that was "lit by intermittent lightning flashes and our rocket flares" as Saumarez swung to the port.

He continued: "[a] tremendous crack and a roar like the end of the world overwhelmed us; all our guns stopped firing.


"An unnerving silence fell: all power was off and communications dead.

"Deaf, wet and confused I looked forward and saw that the upper half of our funnel - thirty feet away - had disappeared.

"The remnant was belching out a towering eruption of steam and smoke.

"The silence was not silence, but the total deafness caused by the tearing shriek of escaping superheated steam."

In the boiler room, Jack said he saw a "flash" on the main steam pipe as a shell entered the boiler and partly detonated.

Steam began to fill the compartment, causing temperatures to rise to roughly 500 degrees Fahrenheit/260 Celsius. 

In a matter of seconds, Jack sprung into action to try to keep the steam away from him and his surviving team.

He said he imagined 'Ginger' Elliot, who was on the diesel dynamo, "died instantly".

Jack opened a throttle to force draught air into the boiler room and while Marten made his way to the emergency hatch, Elliot was "slumped in a corner" and Jock "was on his knees on the plates, the steam already beginning to choke him".

Jack added: "I was lucky being directly under the fan."

Naval procedure called for Jack to evacuate the boiler room and get the others out, but he said Marten had already left and it would have been "impossible" to carry the two fallen men out of the boiler room.

He said: "Both were very hefty lads and the boiler room ladders are very steep."

As a result, he stayed in the boiler room and later recalled: "In a panic, crisis, call it what you will, things don’t actually turn out as laid down by the book."

Fearful of a fire, he turned the oil fuel pressure pump off as the "scalding" steam was spreading through the ship and causing electric circuits to shut down.

Despite suffering extensive burns and scalding, Jack's actions meant the ship's pressurised steam was brought under control and its electrics recovered.

Jack said he remembered how hot the deck plates were over the room "because I had lost my shoes somewhere and was walking in my stockinged feet".

The ship's doctor was driven back by the tremendous heat and Jack realised there was no chance of any other survivors.

The battle raged on until the Haguro was overwhelmed and sank 45 miles southwest of Penang, but it later transpired the boiler room had been hit by Haguro's 50lb shell and while Jack and Marten were hospitalised with severe burns, Marten died from his injuries days later, making Jack was the sole survivor of No 1 boiler room.

After the war, Jack returned home to Oldham where he became a blast furnace man and then a steel operator before he died in autumn in his hometown in 1992.

Jack Yates' impressive collection of medals which have come to auction this February (Image: Noonans)

Medals for auction

Now, Jack's medals, his handwritten account aboard Saumarez and a copy of 'Sink the Haguro', a book which Jack also provided his account in, will be available to bid when it goes to auction this Valentine's Day.

The package includes his original M.I.D certificate, in the name of 'Leading Stoker Jack Yates', dated January 1, 1945, as well as his Admiralty Letter informing him of his rare C.G.M award, dated September 28, 1945, for his role in the Battle of Malacca Straits.

Christopher Mellor-Hill, Head of Client Liaison at Noonans said: “Stoker Petty Officer Jack ‘Spud’ Yates was awarded the very rare Conspicuous Gallantry Medal for braving super-heated live steam to perform vital tasks that saved H.M.S. Saumarez when her boiler room was hit by a five-inch shell during the epic fight with the Japanese heavy cruiser during the Battle of the Malacca Straits in May 1945 - the last major surface action of the war.

"Despite suffering from burns, he focussed his attention on making sure that there was limited damage to the vessel rather than making sure that he hadn’t got hurt.” 

He continued: “This was the last award of the Conspicuous Gallantry Medals of which only 72 were awarded during the Second World War.

"Yates passed away in 1992, however he would almost certainly have been eligible for the retrospective Arctic Star, awarded from 2013 to surviving veterans and their next-of-kin only, 70 years after his qualifying operational service.

"It is being sold by a collector.”  

Got a story? Email me Olivia.bridge@newsquest.co.uk