Post by Admin on Jun 27, 2013 11:31:08 GMT -5
Sydney Cawsey was just 13 years and nine months old when he died alongside his father John, 39, after their merchant naval vessel was shelled on March 12, 1917:
He was one of the youngest victims of the conflict.
Sydney, from Appledore, worked as a cook on a 172-tonne wooden schooner called the S V Reward, which was mastered by his father John Carter Cawsey.
Sydney received the British War Medal and Mercantile Marine War Medal posthumously and is one of the youngest recipients of the awards.
He was among ten other boys aged under 15 who served in the merchant navy during the First World War and one of only a handful who were killed in action.
Meanwhile, John gained the Torpedo Badge medal, which he was posthumously awarded for his service on a different vessel.
Figures show 14,287 British merchant navy sailors died during the First World War.
The deadly German UC-72 submarine downed 38 ships during the war using a deadly combination of torpedoes and mines
LINK: www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Medals-teenage-World-War-victim-sold/story-19154892-detail/story.html#axzz2XQNdeUd8
He was one of the youngest victims of the conflict.
Sydney, from Appledore, worked as a cook on a 172-tonne wooden schooner called the S V Reward, which was mastered by his father John Carter Cawsey.
Sydney received the British War Medal and Mercantile Marine War Medal posthumously and is one of the youngest recipients of the awards.
He was among ten other boys aged under 15 who served in the merchant navy during the First World War and one of only a handful who were killed in action.
Meanwhile, John gained the Torpedo Badge medal, which he was posthumously awarded for his service on a different vessel.
Figures show 14,287 British merchant navy sailors died during the First World War.
The deadly German UC-72 submarine downed 38 ships during the war using a deadly combination of torpedoes and mines
LINK: www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Medals-teenage-World-War-victim-sold/story-19154892-detail/story.html#axzz2XQNdeUd8