Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Seven: Chief Shipwright G. F. Grant, Royal Navy

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, clasp, France and Germany; Africa Star, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Burma Star; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45, all unnamed; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (MX. 47536 Ch. Shpt., H.M.S. Formidable), very fine and better (7) £100-140

The aircraft carrier H.M.S. Formidable won no less than eight Battle Honours in the 1939-45 War, ranging from “Matapan 1941” to “Japan 1945”, with five Mediterranean honours in between. In the latter campaign, her armoured deck saved her from major damage after being hit by two kamikaze aircraft.

On 9 August 1945, at Onagawa Bay, Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray, R.C.N.V.R., flying a Corsair from Formidable, led an attack on a Japanese destroyer. Gray's attack sank the destroyer, although his aircraft was shot down and he was killed. Gray was later posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. He was one of only two Fleet Air Arm aircrew to win the V.C. in the Second World War.