Description
-Distinguished Service Cross GV- unnamed as issued
-1914-15 Star Lieut T.B. Mc Nabb RNVR.
-War & Victory medals- named as above
Lt. Thomas Bembow Vandortales McNabb.
Thomas was born on the 25th June 1881 in Odessa, Russia, his father Richard was 36 and his mother Helen was 39. They had 5 children. He was baptised in Odessa 25th June 1881. The family are shown as living in Egham Berkshire in 1891 and in Marylebone, London 1901. His father died 21 March 1903 at 25 Kensington Gardens Terrace, serving as a Captain Mercantile Marine , London .He married Gladys Mary Edwards in Surrey July 1907. Their son Richard O’Brian was born in Odessa , Russia followed by a daughter Mary Irene 30 May 1910 at Rostov on Den, Russia, Diana Christina 7 Aug 1912 Croydon, Surrey and Trevor Victor Patrick in 1922 Kingston , Surrey (Lt Trevor V P McNabb . He was serving as the intelligence officer for HQ Troop 1st Airborne Recce Squadron Reconnaissance Corps . After earning an MID for the Italian Campaign he took part in the Battle of Arnhem during Op Market Garden .He was captured and critically shop whist a German POW at the massacre at Brummen , transported to the Catholic Hospital at Enschede and died of wounds 27th September 1944 )
His occupation was a shipbroker on the Baltic Exchange and he was the Chairman of McNabb Rougier shipbrokers set up at Odessa , Russia and a prominent member.
The Company was founded in 1881 with the main business being shipping grain out of the Black Sea returning with coal from South Wales Thomas’s father Richard retired from the Merchant Navy having made a record passage Commanding SS St Osyth from London to Melbourne in 1874. He opened offices in Odessa , Nicolayev , Kherson , Novorossiysk, Taganrog , Rostov on Don , London and Newcastle . Virtually every shipowner trading in the Black Sea were chartered by the Company. The current Chairman Benbow McNabb is the great grandson of the founder and Thomas was his grand father
He volunteered for service with the HAC Aug 1914 being commissioned into the RNVR December 1914.
He was awarded to DSC in 1917
His DSC was in the London Gazette issue 30408 page 12548 ,30th 1917 and the citation reads ‘In recognition of his gallantry in going overboard and securing a line to a drifting mine after attempts to sink it by gunfire had failed owing to a choppy sea and considerable swell which made accurate shooting impossible.’
A superb citation not only risking drowning in choppy waters but ensuring that the mine was kept away from shipping and safeguarding lives and ships.
Also appears on WWII Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Officer lists. October 1944 lists him as an ‘Acting Temporary Lieutenant Commander’.
He died in Guildford Surrey 16 May 1955 . His wife passed away in 1972
Condition as shown in photographs
