The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection

A Yangtze incident Naval General Service Medal awarded to Petty Officer Stoker Mechanic D. C. Augustyns, Royal Navy

Naval General Service 1915-62, 2 clasps, Yangtze 1949, Minesweeping 1945-51 (D/KX. 97531 D. C. Augustyns, Ldg. Sto. Mech., R.N.), number officially corrected, good very fine £1200-1500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection.

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Ex Captain K. J. Douglas-Morris collection, Dix Noonan Webb, 18 June 1997 (Lot 157).

Dennis Clarke Augustyns was born in Hull in December 1920 and entered the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in July 1939. He subsequently served in the destroyer H.M.S. Escapade from December 1939 until August 1942, in which period his ship lent valuable service off Norway and in assorted Malta and Arctic convoys 1941-42, the latter including PQ-1, 6, 13, 14 and 17, and return convoys QP-4, 9, 10, 11 and 13.

A period of service in shore establishments having ensued, he joined the Devonport establishment Drake IV in January 1943, when appointed in the rate of Stoker 1st Class to the Landing Ship Tank (L.S.T.) 410, in which capacity he remained employed until August 1944 and was most likely present in the Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and Normandy landings. His final wartime appointment was at the Portland naval base Boscawen, where he attained the temporary rank of Leading Stoker but, by the time of his appointment to H.M.S. Amethyst in March 1949, he was a confirmed Leading Stoker Mechanic.

Present in the famous Yangtze incident April-July 1949, he was one of those who remained on board the ship after the evacuations at Rose Island on 20 April, and Hsiao Ho on 21 April, taking part in the successful break out to freedom. He is mentioned in the diary of Petty Officer Frank, Coxswain of the Amethyst, as one of the lucky winners in a raffle for one of four bottles of Pilsner beer that Captain Kerans brought back to ship after his meeting with the Chinese Commander on 22 July - it was the first beer they had seen for 94 days.

Augustyns remained in the Amethyst until January 1952, when he was advanced to Petty Officer Stoker Mechanic, and, following time ashore, was discharged in January 1953; sold with copy Certificate of Service which confirms his entitlement to the above described Medal & clasps, and a photocopy of Frank’s diary and other related research.