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Auction: 17003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 578

A fine pre-war Palestine, Second World War and Korean War campaign service group of nine awarded to Captain W. C. 'Bill' Curtis, late Royal Marines, who was killed by a terrorist in Aden in June 1967

Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-39 (CH. X. 147 W. C. Curtis, Mne., R.M.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, clasp, France and Germany; Africa Star; Pacific Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Korea 1950-53 (Capt. W. C. Curtis, R.M.); U.N. Korea 1950-54, mounted as worn, one or two minor edge bruises and contact marks, generally very fine or better (9)


William 'Bill' Curtis joined the Royal Marines as a boy bugler in May 1926 and served in H.M.S. Enterprise and H.M.S. Calypso before joining the ranks in February 1933. Over the coming decade he served at Chatham, in addition to further seagoing appointments in Arethusa, Cumberland, and Dido, and was advanced to Sergeant.

Commissioned in February 1942, he spent the remainder of the war at Combined Operations H.Q., where he specialised in landing craft, but his duties clearly involved active service, his 'France and Germany' clasp being a case in point.

Post-war, and following active service in Korea, he was appointed A.D.C. to the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. He retired in September 1965, the same year in which he took up duties as Public Relations Officer for the Royal Navy in the Middle East:

'To those who served in 45 Commando he became a familiar figure both up country in the Radfan, or in Little Aden, escorting various parties of press men who wanted to see what was really going on in Southern Arabia. The Corps can thank him for much of the favourable publicity they received from the press over this period' (his obituary notice in the Globe & Laurel, refers).

Curtis, whose voice was regularly heard over the airwaves of the Aden British Forces Broadcasting Station, was killed by a terrorist on 5 June 1967.


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Sold for
£650