Seven: Canteen Manager A. J. Cusack, Royal Navy, who served aboard the destroyer H.M.S. Kingston during the 1939-45 War

Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-1939 (Ctn. Ast. R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, together with identity disc inscribed, ‘A. J. Cusack, C.M., H.M.S. Kingston’, good very fine (8) £180-220

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of the late Eric Smith.

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Albert Joseph Cusack, who was born in January 1917, served as Canteen Assistant in the operations off the coast of Palestine 1936-39, and during the 1939-45 War in the destroyer Kingston as a Canteen Manager.

Launched in January 1939 and commissioned in October, Kingston assisted at the destruction of the U-35 in the North Sea on 29 November 1939; helped sink the Italian submarine Torricelli in June 1940 and later attacked the submarine Perla in the Red Sea; was active in the operations around Crete, May 1941 and took part in the 1st and 2nd battles of Sirte, 17 December 1941 and 22 March 1942. In the latter battle she was badly damaged by gunfire from the Italian battleship Littorio. Able to limp back to Malta for repairs, she was then heavily damaged by enemy bombers while in dry dock in Valleta Harbour. She rolled over and was declared a total loss. However two sections of the Kingston were later scuttled as a blockship between Selmun Headland and St. Paul’s Island in northern Malta.

Cusack died in Gosport in the 1970s; sold with copied research.