Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Six: Lieutenant-Commander C. O. Roberts, Royal Naval Auxiliary Service, later Merchant Navy and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (Sea Cadet Corps)

British War and Mercantile Marine War Medals 1914-18 (Clarence O. Roberts); Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Royal Naval Auxiliary Service Long Service, E.II.R. (Lt. Cdr. C. O. Roberts, R.N.V.R.); Cadet Forces Long Service, E.II.R. (Ty. Lt. Cdr. (Sp.) C. O. Roberts, R.N.V.R.), generally good very fine (6) £240-280

Clarence Owen “Robby” Roberts was born at Seacombe, Wallesey, Cheshire in May 1894 and entered the Mercantile Marine as a Wireless Operator in the summer of 1914. His first voyage was undertaken in the S.S. Oropesa but details of his subsequent wartime appointments remain unknown. He remained in the Merchant Service until about 1930, following which he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (Sea Cadet Corps).

Commissioned Sea Cadet Lieutenant-Commander in January 1939, he served in the Swansea Division (S.C.C.) for the duration of hostilities and appears to have retired in 1953. He then joined the Royal Naval Minewatching Service, afterwards the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service - the use of his R.N.V.R. (S.C.C.) rank on his subsequent award Long Service Medal is unusual, the R.N.V.R. having been amalgamated with the R.N.R. in 1958.; sold with copied research and correspondence with an ex-member of the Swansea S.C.C., who recalls that Roberts departed the Merchant Service on account of a perforated ear drum.