KBE	08.06.1944	HM's birthday 1944
	MVO	03.06.1922	HM's birthday 1922
	MID	17.11.1942	ocean convoys 1939-1942
	CdeG	30.11.1917	for distinguished services rendered during the War

JP

The following resume was compiled from uncorroborated ‘recollections of reminiscences’ by J.F.R. Crews’ son, Commander Nicholas J.K. Crews, Royal Navy:
"Jimmy Crews went to Britannia Royal Naval College as a 13 year-old cadet in 1924. He shone at rugby, hockey and athletics, in which he broke (and still holds for younger classes) many sprinting records. He subsequently played Rugby football for the Royal Navy. He also had a natural gift for history. On leaving Dartmouth, he went to the battle-cruiser HMS TIGER, where his action station was in the fighting top. From there he shot some interesting film with his cine camera, much of which is held by his son NJKC. There is also some dramatic footage shot from the quarter deck whilst the ship is at speed. As a Sub Lieutenant, Jimmy was sent to HMS DOONE, a fishery protection trawler, where he was involved in the dramatic arrest of a trawler, during which he was shanghaied, but subsequently he enjoyed a friendship with the trawler skipper until the latter died. As a young Lieutenant, Jimmy specialised in Submarines and served firstly in HMS OSIRIS on the China Station, then as First Lieutenant in H32 at Portland, Dorset. He loved his time in China which ended when OSIRIS was recalled westwards in response to the Abyssinian Crisis in 1936/7. It was while in H32, that Jimmy had a bad accident, falling down a ladder in the depot ship TITANIA and breaking his shoulder. He was invalided on half-pay and was on the point of being declared permanently unfit, when Britain declared war on Germany in 1939. Jimmy was appointed as a liaison officer to the Polish Navy in exile in Plymouth, and managed to involve himself in a number of "Polish/SOE" type adventures. He landed a number of times in occupied France. One raid near Audierne was to knock out a German radar station. Returning from the raid to meet up with a submarine off the beach, their Polish woman agent (Janina) was captured. Against their own rules, Jimmy and some Free French companions agreed to return to try to retrieve Janina. This all happened in darkness. French locals told them where they thought Janina was being held, and on reaching the Police station, Jimmy and co saw Janina being interrogated by torture by the Germans. She was naked and was strapped to a table and beaten with barbed wire. Jimmy and co set up a diversion in which the Germans panicked and left Janina alone in the back room. When they were all in the front room, Jimmy's lot threw grenades through the window, killing the Germans and permitting them to retrieve Janina and take her to the r/v despite her appalling injuries. Subsequently, Janina was sent to Canada for post traumatic stress treatment, but never fully recovered. The daughter of a Polish Admiral, at the outbreak of the war, she saw her family murdered by the Germen invaders and had walked from her home in Poland to the Channel coast and got to England, from where she swore she would do her utmost to achieve the liberation of her native Poland. On another occasion, Jimmy was embarked in a 'merchant' mine-laying vessel en route to lay mines off the French coast, when they were 'bounced' quite near the Eddystone lighthouse by a German aircraft. As the ship sank and the crew were jumping into the sea, Jimmy realised that unless the mines were set to safe, the crew would all be killed in the water; so he ensured all the mines were 'safe' before the ship sank under him. He was decorated by the Poles for this action. Jimmy spent a lot of time in the Pyrenees on this type of mission. After the war, Jimmy remained on the active list, despite his pre-war injury, he commanded, in the late 1940s, the RN air station at Ford, HMS Peregrine, while its runways were lengthened for jet aircraft; and in 1950, he took command of the Bay Class frigate, HMS VERYAN BAY. In this appointment he was for a while the squadron 'Half-Leader' to HRH Prince Philip who was in command of HMS MAGPIE at Malta. VERYAN BAY was seconded to the Royal New Zealand Navy for a tour, and on returning from there to Malta, Jimmy accomplished the longest tow ever undertaken by a British warship, towing an unmanned boom defence vessel home through the Suez Canal. In 1951, Jimmy was appointed Naval Attaché in Stockholm, Sweden. During this time he was deeply involved in gathering intelligence on the new Soviet 'Sverdlov' class of cruisers which were being built on the other side of the Baltic Sea, and during their sea-trials. Passed over for promotion for Captain while serving in the Admiralty (Operations Division), Jimmy spent his final 5 years in the Navy on the Staff of the Commander-in-Chief Plymouth, and retired in1961."

	CBE	20.11.1951	Bedenham explosion 17.04.1951 [decoration presented]
	DSO	01.01.1941	New Year 1941 [investiture 25.02.1941]
	MID	16.08.1940	Dunkirk

King Gustav's 90th birthday medal (Sweden) (visit to Stockholm 48)

	KBE	11.07.1940	HM's birthday 1940: service as Commodore [investiture 06.08.1940]
	CB	11.06.1919	for valuable services as Director of Naval Ordnance
	14|15 St	-	-
	BWM 14|20	-	-
	VM	-	-
	Cmdn	15.09.1916	Battle of Jutland
	39|45 St	-	-
	Atl St	-	-
	Def M	-	-
	BWM 39|45	-	-

1911 Coronation Medal.
2nd Cruiser Squadron Medal (South Africa, South America) 1908.
Order of St Anne of 2nd class, crossed swords 05.06.1917.

* Five firsts in examinations

	DSC	14.09.1918	action with the "Goeben" and "Breslau" 20.01.1918 *
	DSC	07.06.1940	Dunkirk [presented to next-of-kin]
	NGSM	05.1924	& clasp Iraq 1920

* He showed marked ability as gunnery officer of the ship; straddled quickly and hit an enemy destroyer.