British War Medal WWI : Able Seaman Richard Porter Harmer Royal Australian Navy
Date1914-1918
Object number00050458
NameMedal
MediumBronze, fabric
DimensionsOverall: 116 x 35 mm
ClassificationsCoins and medals
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionWorld War I British War 1914-1920 medal awarded Able Seaman Richard Porter Harmer for service in the Royal Australian Navy
The medal is cupro-nickel with the effigy of George V on the obverse. The reverse has an image of St George on horseback trampling underfoot the eagle shield of the Central Powers, and a skull and cross-bones, the emblems of death. Above this is the risen sun of victory. The years 1914 and 1918 are contained on the outside edge medal.
The Ribbon has a wide central watered stripe of orange, flanked by two narrow white stripes, which are in turn flanked by two black pin-stripes, further flanked by two outer stripes of purple.
The British War Medal 1914-20 was instituted by King George V in 1919 to mark the end of World War I and record the service given. The qualification period was later extended to cover post-war mine clearance and service in Russia during 1919 and 1920.
This medal is part of a World War I Star Trio to Able Seaman Richard Porter Harmer for service in the Royal Australian Navy. Harmer served in HMAS ENCOUNTER in operations against German New GuineaHistoryFollowing the outbreak of World War I, Australian troops captured German New Guinea and the nearby islands in 1914, after a short resistance led by Captain Carl von Klewitz and Lt Robert von Blumenthal, while Japan occupied most of the remaining German possessions in the Pacific. The only significant battle occurred on 11 September 1914 when the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force attacked the low-power wireless station at Bitapaka (near Rabaul) on the island of New Britain, then Neu Pommern. The Australians suffered six dead and four wounded — the first Australian military casualties of the War. The German forces fared much worse, with one German officer and 30 native police killed and one German officer and ten native police wounded. On 21 September all German forces in the colony surrendered.
