Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part I)

Six: F. Kelly, a Ship’s Master of the China Navigation Company

British War Medal 1914-20 (872090 Boy Std., M.M.R.); Mercantile Marine War Medal 1914-18 (F. Kelly); Victory Medal 1914-19 (872090 Boy Std., M.M.R.); 1939-45 Star; Pacific Star; War Medal 1939-45, together with a Butterfield and Swire 100th Anniversary (1867-1967) commemorative medallion, bronze, with original addressed 1939-45 War campaign medal forwarding box, good very fine and better (7) £80-100

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the collection of Angela and the late Douglas Bertram.

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Francis Kelly, who was born in September 1901, and who obtained his master’s certificate at Cardiff in December 1928, joined the China Navigation Company in the following year. During the 1939-45 War, he commanded the S.S. Hunan from October 1941 to September 1945, latterly as a troopship for South-East Asia Command. In 1941, while still plying her trade as a merchantman, the Hunan was stopped by a Japanese warship and had her Chinese cargo confiscated (Company records refer). Kelly was advanced to Master in November 1949 and retired in April 1957.

Sold with a small quantity of original documents and a portrait photograph, the former including Ministry of Transport campaign award forwarding certificate; and official communication from the Record Office for Shipping and Seamen at Cardiff, dated 5 March 1946, confirming the recipient’s additional entitlement to a ‘Burma’ clasp for his Pacific Star; and an “Authority to Wear” document from the same office for his Mercantile Marine War Medal 1914-18, this dated 21 April 1945.