Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Marine Society Reward of Merit, 47mm, silver, the reverse engraved ‘W. V. Burchett 2. Oct. 28.’, good very fine £80-£120

Walter Valentine Burchett was born in Bexhill, Sussex, on 14 February 1906 and joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on 19 October 1921. He was serving in H.M.S. Dolphin when he was awarded his Marine Society Reward of Merit, and saw further service during the Second World War as a Leading Seaman in the requisitioned armed merchant cruiser H.M.S. Transylvania. He was killed in action on 10 August 1940 when the Transylvania was torpedoed by the German submarine U-56 off Malin Head, off the Clyde. Taken in tow, she sank off the north coast of Ireland on 10 August 1940, with the loss of 2 officers and 20 ratings. Burchett was amongst those killed, and he is buried in Greenock Cemetery, Scotland.