Medals from the Collection of the Late Eric Smith (Part II)

Five: Temporary Lieutenant W. H. Bailey, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, who was killed in action in the trawler Rysa in December 1943

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45, in their original addressed card forwarding box, the side inscribed, ‘55/930’, together with related Admiralty condolence slip in the name of ‘Ty. Lieutenant William Hugh Bailey, R.N.V.R.’, extremely fine (5) £80-100

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

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William Hugh Bailey was killed in action on 8 December 1943, when the trawler Rysa was mined off Maddalena, Sardinia. An Isles-class minesweeping trawler which had been commissioned into the Royal Navy in August 1941, she served with the Fifth Trawler Group out of Portland prior to moving to the Mediterranean theatre of war. In addition to Bailey, three ratings were killed on the same occasion, and another officer wounded; the above described forwarding box is inscribed to the recipient’s mother ‘Mrs. J. C. Bailey, Lowther-Newtown, Penrith, Cumberland.’