Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Attributed to Lieutenant N. H. Hoare, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, killed in action when H.M.S. Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy, was sunk by the German battleship Bismark and the battle cruiser Prinz Eugen in the Denmark Strait on 24 May 1941; of the Hood’s 1,418 crew, only three men survived
1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939-45, housed in a contemporary wooden framed glass-fronted case, bearing a brass name plate inscribed, ‘Lt. Norris Henry Hoare, R.N.V.R., Killed on Active Service 24.5.41, H.M.S. Hood’, extremely fine (3) £400-£500

Eric Smith Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, September 2009.

Norris Henry Hoare, the son of Henry and Elizabeth Jane Hoare, of Whipton, Devon, was a member of staff of Lloyds Bank Limited at Newton Abbot, Devon and was a Member of the Institute of Bankers. During the Second World War he served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. Serving aboard the battle cruiser H.M.S. Hood, he was killed in action during the Battle of the Denmark Strait, when the Hood, together with the battleship H.M.S. Prince of Wales, fought the German battleship Bismark and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, both of which were attempting to break out into the North Atlantic to destroy Allied merchant shipping. The Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy, opened fire at 5:52 a.m. on 24 May 1941, and having received a direct hit from the Bismark at 6:00 a.m. sank beneath the waves within three minutes, after a total combat lifespan of less than quarter of an hour. Of the 1,418 Officers and crew on board, only three men, Ordinary Seaman Ted Briggs, Able Seaman Robert Tilburn, and Midshipman William Dundas survived. Aged 28 at the time of his death, Hoare is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

Sold with the book In Memoriam 1939-1945, published in conjunction with the unveiling of a Memorial to fallen members of Lloyds Bank staff, erected at the Banking Hall at 71 Lombard Street. The Memorial was unveiled on 11 November 1949, at a service of dedication attended by many of the relatives of the deceased, directors, senior officials and staff of the Bank. The book contains the Order of Service for the Dedication and provides a photographic record of members of staff named on the Memorial, who were killed during the war (including Lieutenant Hoare). With the book is a forwarding letter from the Chairman and Directors of the Bank, dated 3 September 1951, addressed to Mr & Mrs H. Hoare at ‘Morwenna’, 10, Kennerley Avenue, Whipton, near Exeter. Also with a copy of the letter of acknowledgement and thanks sent in return.