Sold by Order of the Recipient’s Direct Descendants

A rare George Cross (exchange E.G.M.) group of nine awarded to Captain Frank Naughton, Royal Armoured Corps, late Royal Tank Regiment

George Cross (No. 7882964 Pte. Frank Naughton, R. Tank Corps, 1st February 1937); 1939-45 Star; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Coronation 1953; Silver Jubilee 1977; Golden Jubilee 2002; Police Exemplary Service Medal, E.II.R. (Const. Frank Naughton), contact wear and edge bruising, and polished overall, otherwise nearly very fine or better (9)
£12000-15000

E.G.M. London Gazette 1 February 1937:

‘On 5 August 1936, when engaged in recovering am armoured car which had broken down on the Irish Bridge over the flooded river Indrayani, near Moshi, No. 7560229 Lance-Corporal S. J. Temple and No. 7884545 Private R. A. S. Campbell were swept off the bridge into the water below, where there were very swift and dangerous currents. Private Naughton (who was fully clothed, except for his boots) with an entire disregard of the grave risk of death to himself, immediately dived off the Irish Bridge, where the two men had been swept off into the water, to render assistance. He was drawn under the water several times, and it was only with the utmost difficulty that he was able to overcome the strong cross and under currents. He regained shallow water and was almost exhausted. Despite his personal fatigue, immediately he saw the body of one of the soldiers appear on the surface about 40 yards distant, he again heroically entered the water, and swimming with utmost difficulty, succeeded in bringing Lance-Corporal Temple, who was by this time unconscious, into shallow water, where both were assisted ashore, at a point about 100 yards downstream from the bridge. By his courageous action and absolute disregard of all danger, Private Naughton saved the life of Lance-Corporal Temple.’

Frank Naughton was born at Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, in March 1915, the son of Charles, a Boer War veteran who was then on active service, and Sophie. Both of his parents had been orphans and as a result of his father dying young, Naughton determined to make his way in the Army on completing his education at the Guild Street Central School.

Duly enlisting in the Royal Tank Corps in late 1931, he was serving in the 10th Light Tank Company at Kirkee, Poona, at the time of his gallant lifesaving exploits in August 1936, when ordered to recover one of his unit’s Crossley armoured cars. Invested with his E.G.M. by the Governor of Bombay, the 5th Lord Bradbourne, at an investiture held at Poona racecourse on 9 June 1937, he returned to the U.K. at the end of the year, where he joined the Plymouth City Police in March 1938.

Called-up on the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939, shortly after having married Doreen Banks, he served as an instructor before being embarked for India in 1942, where he was appointed a Sergeant in the 26th Hussars. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Armoured Corps (R.A.C.) in March 1943, he served in the 150th R.A.C. Regiment as a Technical Adjutant during the Burma campaign 1944-45, and was present in the battles of Kohima and Imphal, and in General Slim’s drive south to relieve Rangoon, and was a shadow of his former self on returning to the U.K. as a Captain at the War’s end, when he appeared to his wife no more than ‘a yellow skeleton’.

On recovering his health, Naughton rejoined the Plymouth City Police, the first nine years of his second period of service being spent on the beat at Greenbank, followed by eight years as a warrant officer responsible for the issuing of warrants and organising court appearances.

Having then retired from the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary in March 1968, he worked as a supervisor for the English China Clay Company in Plymouth until his final retirement in 1979, following which he kept himself busy as President the South-West Burma Star Association and as President of the Royal Tank Regiment Association until 1995.

Naughton, who had been re-invested with the G.C. at Buckingham Palace on 29 July 1947, died in June 2004, aged 89 years.