Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Second World War C.G.M. group of six awarded to Petty Officer J. Dunn, Royal Naval Reserve, who was decorated for his gallantry on the occasion of the loss of H.M.S. Cape Finisterre to enemy aircraft off Harwich in August 1940

Conspicuous Gallantry Medal, G.VI.R. (X. 19116 A. J. Dunn, Smn., R.N.R.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Royal Naval Reserve L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue, with Second Award Bar (19116 A. J. Dunn, P.O., R.N.R.), contact marks but generally very fine or better (6) £6000-8000

C.G.M. London Gazette 6 September 1940:

‘For bringing down a enemy aircraft and for returning to a sinking ship and searching in a steam-filled engine room for a missing shipmate.’

Joseph Dunn, who was born in Sunderland in September 1914, enrolled in the Royal Naval Reserve as a Deck Hand in October 1936 and was posted to the Harwich base Badger on the outbreak of hostilities. And it was while operating out of there in the trawler Cape Finisterre that he won his C.G.M. on the occasion of her loss to enemy aircraft on 2 August 1940.

Dunn remained actively employed in trawlers operating out of Harwich, including the Nectan, until March 1942, when he transferred to the Lowestoft base Martello with an appointment in the Evelyn Rose and thence, in July of the same year, to the nearby Royal Naval Patrol Service base Europa at Sparrow’s Nest. But the latter appointment was short-lived, for he was next embarked for the U.S.A. to promote war bond sales, and he was guest of honour at a gathering held at the Hotel Statler in Buffalo on 14 August 1942, the programme describing how he shot down a ‘Nazi Heinkel plane’ and was by then the ‘survivor of two sinkings’.

Dunn rejoined the Royal Naval Patrol Service in Europa on his return to the U.K., served aboard the Corsair out of Benbow base from May to October 1944, and thereafter back in Europa until the end of the War, in which latter period he was advanced to Petty Officer.

Demobilised at the end of the 1945, he was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in November 1946 and, having been discharged from the R.N.R. in April 1950, re-enrolled in March 1956 and served for several years as a member of the River Wear Police.

Sold with original congratulatory card for the C.G.M. from Admiral R. P. E. E. Drax and programme from the above mentioned ‘Million Dollar War Bond’ gathering at Buffalo in August 1942, together with a file of research.