A first world war Submarine Commander’s casualty group to Lieutenant Charles Arthur Campbell Russell, Royal Navy, an Australian by birth, who having seen pre war service aboard the pre-dreadnought battleship ‘H.M.S. Venerable’ then saw service aboard H.M. Submarine ‘H8’ before he was noted as killed in the loss of H.M. Submarine ‘G7’ on 1st November 1918 during a patrol in the North Sea. 

1914-15 Star named to Lieut. C.A.C. Russell. R.N. 
British War Medal named to Lieut. C.A.C. Russell. R.N. 
WW1 Victory Medal named to Lieut. C.A.C. Russell. R.N. 
Memorial Plaque (Death Penny) named to Charles Arthur Campbell Russell

The medals are in good condition and are housed in a period display frame. 

Killed In Action – 1st November 1918

Charles Arthur Campbell Russell was born in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia on 27th March 1892 educated at Melbourne Grammar School, entering Wadhurst in 1899 then loving the the Senior School in 1903. At the end of 1903 he left for the United Kingdom where he enrolled at Osborne College which was an educational institution attached to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. He was made Naval Cadet on 15th September 1904, and subsequently promoted to Senior Cadet Captain, winning King Edward’s Gold Medal. Appointed Midshipman aboard HMS Venerable a pre-dreadnought battleship on 17th June 1912, then Sub Lieutenant on 15th January 1913, Lieutenant on 1st January 1915 and appointed to served as a Lieutenant on H.M. Submarine ‘H8’ on the 30th April 1918.

Russell would subsequently serve as the Commander of H.M. Submarine ‘G7’ On 15 April 1917, G7 was patrolling between Lerwick and Bergen when she sighted the German submarine U-30. G7 fired a torpedo at U-30 and after an exchange of gunfire the German submarine dived away. Although U-30 escaped unscathed, G7 had interrupted U30’s attempts to sink two Norwegian merchant ships. One, Svanfos, which still had a boarding party from U-30 aboard, returned to Bergen under her own steam, while the second, the Borgila, had been abandoned by her crew. G7 put a salvage party aboard Borgila until the Norwegian destroyer Draug arrived to take over.

In October 1918 G7 was on patrol in the North Sea. Communications were lost on 23rd October and she was declared lost on 1st November.

Russell is recorded as having died on 1st November 1918 whilst serving as a Lieutenant, H.M. Submarine ‘G7’, he is remembered on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.