Medals for Services at Sea from the Collection of the Late Oliver Stirling Lee

Nine: Chief Engine Room Artificer G. S. Cleal, Royal Navy

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45; Naval General Service 1915-62, 2 clasps, S.E. Asia 1945-46, Malaya (P/MX. 54698 C.E.R.A., R.N.); Korea 1950-53 (P/MX. 54698 C.E.R.A., R.N.); U.N. Korea; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (MX. 54698 C.E.R.A., H.M.S. Caprice), contact marks, very fine and better (9) £300-350

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals for Services at Sea from the Collection of the Late Oliver Stirling Lee.

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The destroyer H.M.S. Caprice was commissioned in April 1944 and, after a period of “working up” at Tobermory joined the Home Fleet at Scapa. It is likely, too, that Cleal joined her ship’s company at the same time. Between then and the end of the year, she participated in three Russian convoys, and, in the summer of 1945, proceeded to the Far East, where she was employed in post-war operations in the Dutch East Indies, French Indo-China and around Malaya, activities that will have qualified Cleal for his ‘“S.E. Asia 1945-46” clasp.