~ WW1 C Class Light Cruiser HMS Cardiff Life Ring With Sailor Photograph ~
A hand painted naval souvenir or sweetheart photograph frame modelled as a ship's lifebuoy, made for a crewman of HMS Cardiff. The circular body is finished in dark navy blue with the ship's name lettered in gilt and red shaded capitals, H M S across the top and CARDIFF across the foot, and with four gilt bands imitating the lashings of a real cork lifebuoy. Two hand painted flags flank the centre, including a White Ensign, and a length of cord is threaded around the ring to suggest the becket or grab lines. At the centre, within a painted gilt cable surround, is a sepia photographic portrait of a young sailor in Royal Navy uniform wearing a peaked cap. The peaked cap and jacket suggest a petty officer or above in fore and aft rig rather than an ordinary rating, which is a detail worth confirming, since it opens a route to identifying the man from the ship's records.
Historical context
HMS Cardiff was a C class light cruiser, one of the five Ceres sub class, built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company at Govan, launched on 12 April 1917 and completed on 25 June 1917, after which she became flagship of the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet. She took part in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight on 17 November 1917, but her place in history was secured a year later: on the morning of 21 November 1918 it was HMS Cardiff that met the German High Seas Fleet and led it in to the rendezvous with the Grand Fleet, escorting the surrendered ships into the Firth of Forth ahead of their internment at Scapa Flow. She went on to serve in the Baltic against the Bolsheviks in late 1918, then in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, before spending much of the interwar period overseas or in reserve and finishing the Second World War as a gunnery training ship. By the time she left the China Station in 1939 she was the oldest British cruiser still in seagoing commission and the only C class cruiser from the war still active.
~ Condition ~
The life ring is in good order with minor paint wear.
~ Dimensions ~
The life ring is 22 cm (8.5 inches) in diameter.
JA_#10523/81_270722_PQB_284497347
