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Auction: 18001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 591

A good Second World War B.E.M. group of eight awarded to Petty Officer S. Shaw, Royal Navy, who was decorated for his services in H.M.S. Clarkia, which corvette rescued upwards of 120 merchant seamen in the period 1940-42

Most notably, however, Clarkia rescued the survivors of the U-468, which U-Boat had fallen victim to a Liberator of No. 200 Squadron piloted by Flying Officer L. A. Trigg, R.N.Z.A.F.: it was on evidence submitted by the rescued U-Boat's captain that Trigg was awarded a posthumous V.C.

British Empire Medal (Military), G.VI.R., 1st issue (A.B. Samuel Shaw, C/JX. 126470, R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1945-48 (C/JX. 126470 S. Shaw, B.E.M., P.O., R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (JX. 146270 S. Shaw, P.O., H.M.S. Osprey), the first with edge bruise, otherwise generally very fine or better (8)

B.E.M. London Gazette 1 July 1941.

Samuel Shaw was born in Liverpool on 17 December 1910 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in April 1926. An Able Seaman serving aboard the Flower-class corvette H.M.S. Clarkia by the outbreak of hostilities, he was awarded his B.E.M. in respect of successful convoy rescue operations in the period 1940-42.

Thus 45 crew rescued from the Accra; 32 from the Vinemoor; 16 from the Brandanger (off Iceland); five from the Empire Citizen (off Iceland); five from the British Resource and 30 from the British Consul (off Trinidad).

Most notable of Clarkia's rescues, however, was that of seven survivors from the U-468 in August 1943, among them Oberleutnant Klemens Schamong. Their U-Boat had fallen victim to a determined and gallant strike carried out by Flying Officer A. L. Trigg, D.F.C., R.N.Z.A.F., and his fellow Liberator crew. All were killed immediately after delivering their depth-charge attack, their aircraft taking severe punishment from the U-Boat's guns on making its final approach and crashing in to the sea. The U-Boat's survivors were subsequently picked up by Clarkia and it was on evidence submitted by Oberleutnant Schamong that Trigg was awarded a posthumous V.C.; see Spink, The Aviation Collection, May 1998, for full details.

Shaw was serving at the Portland establishment Osprey at the time of being awarded his L.S. & G.C. in January 1944, of which distinction he was later deprived - the relevant roll states 'Medal thrown out of port hole'. The Medal was clearly restored to him at a later date; sold with copied research, including the official 'Interrogation of Survivors' report in respect of the U-468.

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Sold for
£450