WW1 Medal Trio to Manship RNR. Killed by Mine 1916

A poignant WW1 Trio of medals comprising of the 1914/15 star, British war and victory medal named to SA. 927 John William Manship 2nd Deck Hand Royal navy Reserve. Naming error on star named to Manchip but with correct number and rank. BWM and victory all correct.
John Manship was Born in Caister-on-sea Norfolk on 1st February 1886 to John and Emily. His father was a Lifeboatman and likewise, john went to sea at a young age, in the local fishing industry.
From 1914, the Great Yarmouth fishing fleet played a vital role in the war effort. Many local fishing vessels were requisitioned by the Royal Navy and armed for service. The fishermen, with their seafaring skills, were valuable assets to the navy, contributing to the defence of the country. However, the war also severely impacted the fishing industry, disrupting trade and causing economic hardship for the fishermen’s families.
John worked on wooden Drifters off the east Anglian coast and when war broke out he volunteered into the RNR. And placed on one of the requisitioned fishing vessels to patrol the dover straight. This is a very underrated contribution to WW1 history.
many U-boats passed through the Dover Strait, from their bases in the Flemish ports of Zeebrugge, Bruges and Ostend to attack Britain’s maritime supply lines. When war broke out, no one was taking the still primitive submarines very seriously, but after U9 took just an hour to sink three British cruisers, the Royal navy attitude changed.
The Dover patrol was formed to prevent German submarines and ships from entering the English Channel o their way through to the Atlantic Ocean. This forced the German navy to take a much longer route around Scotland which was covered by the Northern Patrol.
The Dover Patrol procured privately owned trawlers and drifters and even yachts. They were armed and worked alongside Royal navy cruisers, destroyers, minesweepers, submarines, seaplanes, aeroplanes and airships.
John served as a 2nd deck hand on the wooden steam drifter Clover Bank and their job was mine sweeping and laying in the channel, which was an extremely dangerous job.
The Dover Patrol developed the idea of steel nets with mines attached, deployed and attended by drifters, supported in turn by destroyers, although it was easier said than done. The Strait was only 20 miles wide, but the water was difficult, with sandbanks, tidal rips and, in bad weather, breaking seas, all combining occasionally to sweep nets away. And British mines were notoriously unreliable and tended to break loose and tangle in the nets.
HM Clover Bank was a hired drifter, Admiralty No 750. Built 1912 in Aberdeen with the registration number A.379. it had an armament of a single 16pdr gun.
John Manship was on board when the ship Clover Bank on 24th April 1916. While laying the barrage of mined nets to ensnare German U-Boats of the coast of Zeebrugge. whilst laying nets the Clover bank ran over a British mine, which exploded. John Manship was one of eighteen men who lost their lives in the explosion.
John William Manship is now remembered with honoured at the Chatham Naval Memorial. He was the husband of Florence Maud Manship and father to John William Manship Jr.
His trio of medals are in very good condition and comes with various copied research including service records, Commonwealth war graves certificate, census records etc.

Code: 30897