Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An impressive Second World War O.B.E. group of ten awarded to Captain R. P. Mann, Merchant Navy and Royal Naval Reserve, who was latterly Commodore of the prestigious Bibby Line: his wartime distinctions included a “mention” for hospital ship work in the Middle East

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, silver-gilt; 1914-15 Star (Lieut. R. P. Mann, R.N.R.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. R. P. Mann, R.N.R.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, clasp, France and Germany; Africa Star, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Burma Star; Italy Star; War Medal, M.I.D. oak leaf, mounted as worn, good very fine and better (10) £400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Awards to Merchant Seamen and D.E.M.S. Gunners.

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O.B.E. London Gazette 4 January 1943.

Robert Peter Mann, who was born in Dundee in September 1885, first went to sea in a professional capacity as a Fourth Officer in the S.S. Staffordshire, a vessel of the Bibby Line, in February 1910, and was serving in the S.S. Leicestershire on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914. Resigning from the Bibby Line to enrol in the Royal Naval Reserve at the year’s end, he was commissioned as a Temporary Sub. Lieutenant in January 1915, and remained similarly employed for the duration of the War, latterly as a Temporary Lieutenant at the Sheerness torpedo establishment Actaeon.

Rejoining the Bibby Line as a First Officer in the S.S. Warwickshire in early 1919, he gained his first command in the mid-1920s, and was serving as Captain of the S.S. Dorsetshire on the renewal of hostilities, which ship was converted for use as a hospital ship. Mann subsequently took her out to the Middle East, where during a voyage to Tobruk at the end of January 1941, she was attacked by enemy aircraft, even though clearly marked as a hospital ship. At the end of the same year, Mann was appointed Commodore of the Bibby Line, but he continued to lend valuable service out in the Middle East until returning home on leave in April 1942. He was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 5 May 1942 refers).

Appointed to the Derbyshire in September 1942, which Bibby Line ship had been converted for use as a troop transport equipped with landing craft, he commanded her with distinction during the North Africa landings that November - he was awarded the O.B.E. Moreover, he remained in command of her throughout the Sicily landings in July 1943, the Salerno in September 1943, the Anzio landings in January 1944, and the South of France landings in August 1944. Thence ordered to the Far East, Derbyshire lent valuable service off Burma, India and Malaya, Mann finally bringing her home in early 1946. He retired in April 1948; sold with a file of research.