GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY 43
A Second World War O.B.E. group of eight awarded to Commander R. H. Mack, Royal Navy, who, having come ashore after the Great War, found employment as captain of the Duke of Westminster’s private yacht Cutty Sark, an ex-R.N. destroyer fitted out to “Bend Or’s” highest standards, including some notable ‘Queen Anne’ decorations - with ‘her attractive, racy lines and distinctive appearance’ she was well-known in yachting circles between the wars: with the renewal of hostilities, Cutty Sark was taken up by the Admiralty as a submarine chaser, Mack remaining in command until 1944, a period encompassing several close calls, not least when she transported assorted ‘XD’ - or demolition - parties to France in 1940
THEMOST EXCELLENTORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, silver-gilt; 1914-15 STAR (S. Lt. R. H. Mack, R.N.); BRITISHWAR AND VICTORY MEDALS, M.I.D. oak leaf (Lieut. R. H. Mack, R.N.); 1939-45 STAR; ATLANTIC STAR; DEFENCE AND WAR MEDALS 1939-45, generally very fine or better (8)
£400-500 O.B.E. London Gazette 14 June 1945.
Richard Herbert Mack was born in 1896, the third son of Major Philip Paston Mack of Paston Hall, Norfolk. One of his brothers, Philip, became a distinguished destroyer captain, winning a D.S.O. and Bar in H.M.S Jervis prior to his death in April 1943.
Entering the R.N.C. Dartmouth in 1909, he was appointed Midshipman in the battleship H.M.S. Vanguard in September 1913, and remained similarly employed - latterly in the rank of Sub. Lieutenant - until removing to the sloop Alyssum in December 1915.
He next served in a succession of destroyers, namely the Pylades (December 1916 to November 1917), the Pigeon (November 1917 to March 1918) and the Scimitar (March 1918 to February 1919). Advanced to Lieutenant in Pylades, he was mentioned in despatches for his services in the Scimitar for good work on escorts, convoys and patrols (London Gazette 20 September 1918, refers).
In the immediate post-war era Mack served in Iron Duke, the flagship of the C.-in-C. Mediterranean, prior to being placed on the Retired List at his own request in 1925. Here, then, the commencement of his long held command of Cutty Sark, the Duke of Westminster’s private yacht, for whom he took up employment in the same year. He married Lady Mary Grosvenor, sister of the 3rd Duke, in February 1938, shortly after being advanced to Commander on the Retired List.
As stated, the Cutty Sark was taken up by the Admiralty as a submarine chaser on the advent of hostilities, Mack remaining in command and attacking a contact picked-up while patrolling off Liverpool in December 1939.
Having then seen service off Norway in April 1940, the Cutty Sark participated in operations off France in May-June 1940, one of her tasks being to transport assorted XD - R.E. demolition - parties; in so doing, she suffered bomb damage off St. Nazaire and had to be towed back to Plymouth.
Cutty Sark was subsequently employed on escort duties out of Holy Loch, onetime on attachment to the 3rd Submarine Flotilla. Among other operational activity, she picked up three crew members from a downed Whitley in November 1942, who had been dinghy-bound for 84 hours; by way of thanks to Mack and his shipmates, their next aircraft, Lancaster ED-654 of No. 19 Squadron, was christened ‘Cutty Sark’.
In February 1944, however, Mack removed his command to the sloop Bridgewater, a submarine escort ship based at Holy Loch, and it was in this capacity that he was awarded his O.B.E. in June 1945. Placed back on the Retired List at the War’s end, he settled in Ireland, where he died at Clonmel in September 1967.
Sold with the recipient’s original Buckingham Palace O.B.E. forwarding letter, with pencilled career details to reverse; together with copied research, including extracts from letter written by Mack while commanding the Cutty Sark.
www.dnw.co.uk
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