Code: 11895
A good example of a George V period 1891 pattern Midshipman's Dirk.
This example bearing the initials "E.M.U." to the top locket.
The hilt with attractive lionshead pommel, shagreen grip bound with brass wire, all complete, and with no movement. The crossguard with acorn finials, integral release catch, and crowned fouled anchor.
The eighteen inch blade with vacant retailers marking at the ricasso, which would indicate it was retailed by an independant military tailor. Interlocking "proof" triangles to the other. The unfullered blade is engraved for three quarters of its length on both sides with ropework and foliate decoration, twin vacant panels, and also includes the fouled anchor and Royal coat of arms. Some old light staining, but mainly clean and bright with particuarly clean decoration. An untouched piece which would respond well to a light clean and polish.
The regulation brass mounted black leather scabbard in good condition, the top mount with recess for the sprung safety catch, this mount is also complete with twin hanging rings. It has been engraved with the initials of the original owner, "E.M.U."
The leather body is solid, the stitching complete and intact, and would benefit from a polish.
I beleive this example to have originally belonged to Captain Edward Maurice Usherwood OBE DSC.
Born at Bembridge on the Isle of Wight on the 1st of December 1911, Usherwood joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in September 1929. He rose steadily through the ranks, and was a specialist in Anti Submarine Warfare. He demonstarated the ASDIC (Anti Submarine Detection Investigation Committee) Underwater Sonar system to Winston Churchill personally.
Awarded the DSC for his part in Operation Mercerised in 1944.
A link to his obituary may be found HERE. It reads:
"Usherwood was the naval commander of Operation Mercerised, a joint force which in October 1944 liberated the Greek island. Nos 2 (Army) and 40 (Royal Marine) Commando, under Brigadier Tom Churchill, had landed on the hilly Albanian coast north of Corfu; they needed to capture the port of Sarande in order to bring in reinforcements and stores, but were left stranded by heavy opposition and poor weather.
Usherwood was sent to see what he could do. After landing on a narrow gap in the tall cliffs, he went ashore to liaise with Churchill. Together they organised resupply of the commandos, and planned a surprise attack on Sarande, for which Usherwood brought up reinforcements, including more landing craft and two destroyers, Wilton and Belvoir. Meanwhile, the Assyrian Parachute Company (which had been raised in Iraq) was landed to outflank the German defences. After a bombardment by Usherwood’s destroyers, Sarande fell on October 9. Two days later Churchill and Usherwood decided on an advance to Corfu, which they found weakly defended.
They were greeted by an ecstatic Greek population and by two clerics, who from the colour of their beards became known as the black and white bishops, who seemed to be in charge. Urged on by the priests, a victory parade was held on October 14, led by Usherwood’s sailors. The march past was almost spoiled when Greek girls rushed forward to strew the road with long-stemmed roses, which caused havoc as an impromptu Greek band leading the parade was marching barefoot, and accordingly broke up in disarray. Usherwood was awarded a DSC.
Edward Maurice Usherwood was born on December 1 1911 at Bembridge, on the Isle of Wight, where his father was the vicar: the sight of warships at Spithead inspired Maurice to join the Navy in 1925.
He became an anti-submarine specialist and in 1938 was in the destroyer Walpole when it was part of a secret demonstration for the First Sea Lord, Lord Chatfield, and Winston Churchill (then in the political wilderness, though being briefed by insiders). The exercise was to demonstrate the capabilities of modern sonar, known as Asdic.
Usherwood laid on an impressive display of detecting and attacking a “submarine” off Portland. Usherwood was not sure that Churchill fully understood the significance of the echoes of the Asdic “pings”, but the demonstration was such a success that some historians later suggested that it led to complacency about the U-boat threat. Churchill seemed to suggest as much in The Gathering Storm: “The faithful effort has relieved us of our great danger ... I had never imagined that I should hear one of those creatures asking to be destroyed.”
Usherwood, reflecting on it 50 years later, recalled that the conditions had been ideal, and that the success of his Asdic operators that day had amazed even him. He had been asked to demonstrate the capabilities of Asdic, not its limitations, and that was what he had done.
He spent most of the war in destroyers on Atlantic and Arctic convoy duties, of which his overriding memory was of the hours spent chipping ice off the superstructure.
Postwar, Usherwood commanded Loch Arkaig, Verulam, Torquay, and Scarborough. He twice held important staff appointments in America: from 1950 to 1953 he helped develop new sonars (as Asdic was now known) and write the anti-submarine chapter of Allied Tactical Publication No 1; from 1960 to 1962 he was head of the naval intelligence division of the Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic.
Maurice Usherwood’s father had retired to Ipswich and Usherwood lived with him when on leave, settling there in retirement in 1964. He was energetic on the Old People’s Welfare Committee, the forerunner of Age Concern. He was also an active vice-president of the Soldiers’ Sailors’ and Airmen’s Families Association, Suffolk. In 1994 he was appointed OBE for his charitable work."
A very pleasing example of the pattern, which has excellent potential for further research.
Original and untouched dirks are now proving hard to find, and provenanced examples especially so.
Strictly over 18's only. Photo ID will be required before this item can be dispatched.
