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

Nine: Leading Telegraphist A. V. Richards, Royal Fleet Reserve, late Royal Navy

British War and Victory Medals (J. 87198 B. Tel., R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Burma Star; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45; Royal Fleet Reserve L.S., G.V.R., coinage bust (J. 87198 (Po. B. 18329) L. Tel., R.F.R.), together with an H.M.S. Furious sporting medal, bronze, dated 1927, in fitted case, the first with officially corrected number, generally good very fine or better (9) £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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Archibald Victor Richards, who was born in Camden Town, London in July 1902, entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in March 1918, and witnessed a brief spell of seagoing duty in H.M.A.S. Australia just before the end of hostilities. Discharged to the Royal Fleet Reserve as a Leading Telegraphist in the early 1930s, following numerous seagoing appointments, including the aircraft carrier H.M.S. Furious, he was recalled for duty at the 1935 Jubilee and 1937 Coronation Reviews, and returned to active service on the renewal of hostilities.

His first seagoing appointment was in the destroyer Acheron between November 1939 and October 1940 - she was mined off the Isle of Wight a few weeks later - and his second in the aircraft carrier Formidable from October 1940 to March 1941. There followed a brief spell of duty aboard the battleship Valiant but in July of the latter year he returned to the Formidable, witnessing the North Africa, Sicily and Salerno landings, prior to returning ashore to Victory IV in April 1944. Richards ended the War at Spartiate, the Glasgow naval base and was released in November 1945.

Sold with a quantity of original ship photographs / postcards, together with the recipient’s Telegraphist’s uniform insignia and I.D. disc.