Croix de Guerre 1914-1918 (France) awarded to Admiral of the Fleet Lord Tovey GCB, KBE, DSO.

John Cronyn Tovey was born 7 March 1885 and joined the training ship ‘Britannia’ just before his fifteenth birthday. At the beginning of the First World War he was serving as first lieutenant on board HMS ‘Amphion’. He went on to command destroyers in particular HMS ‘Onslow’ at the Battle of Jutland when he was promoted to commander for “the persistent and determined manner in which he attacked enemy ships”. The citation for the award of the DSO published in the London Gazette 10 July 1919 reads, ‘For distinguished services in command of HMS ‘Onslow’.

After the war he gained rapid promotion and in 1935 was promoted to Rear-Admiral. In 1939-1940, Tovey served under Admiral Cunningham in the Mediterrenean but in June 1940 was recalled to take command of the Home Fleet. Flying his flag in HMS ‘King George V’ he took part in the sinking of the ‘Bismarck’ in May 1941. In July 1943 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Nore. In the same year he was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet. He was created KBE in 1941, GCB in 1943 and became a baron in 1946. Lord Tovey died in 1971.

The medal is in the form of a bronze cross patté superimposed on two crossed swords. The central medallion on the obverse bears the symbolic head of the Republic (Marianne). Inscribed,‘REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE’. Inscribed on the reverse, ‘1914’ ‘1917’. It is suspended from a watered silk ribbon with narrow red edges and five narrow vertical stripes.

The medal is mounted on a bar with the following: Distinguished Service Order (MED2191),1914-15 Star (MED2192), British War Medal (MED2193), Victory Medal with oak leaf (MED2194), USA Legion of Merit (MED2195), 1939-45 Star (MED2196), Atlantic Star (MED2197), Africa Star with bar North Africa 1942-3 (MED2198), Defence Medal (MED2199), War Medal (MED2200), Jubilee Medal (MED2201), 1937 Coronation Medal (MED2202) and 1953 Coronation Medal (MED2203).