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Auction: 20001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - conducted behind closed doors
Lot: 994

(x) A poignant replacement group of eight awarded to Seaman N. J. Edwards, Royal Navy, who survived the loss of H.M.S. Repulse near Kuantan off the East Coast of Malaya, but was later captured and became a Japanese Prisoner of War

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Pacific Star; War Medal 1939-45; Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Bomb and Mine Clearance 1945-53 (JX166603 N J Edwards L. Sea RN Replacement); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., E.II.R. (JX166603 N. J. Edwards PO H.M.S. Defiance Replacement); Dunkirk Medal 1940; Belgium, King Albert I Veteran's Medal, swing mounted on modern ribbons, good very fine (8)


Norman John Edwards served as Boy aboard the Great War era Renown-Class battlecruiser H.M.S. Repulse which formed part of 'Force Z' and was tasked with intercepting the Japanese invasion fleet north of Malaya. On 10 December 1941, after failing to find any enemy vessels and turning south, the British fleet was attacked by 86 Japanese aircraft from 22nd Air Flotilla based in Saigon. The Repulse, despite able leadership and handling from her Captain William Tennant, was fatally caught by a synchronised pincer attack and hit by 4 or 5 torpedoes in rapid succession. Lacking the anti-torpedo blisters her sister ship Renown had received, and also without a modern battleship's internal waterproof compartmentalisation and subdivision, the Repulse listed heavily to port over a period of approximately 6 minutes and sank at 12.33hrs with heavy casualties (Battleship by Middlebrook & Mahoney, refers).

Ordered to abandon ship the crew, including Edwards and Tennant, found themselves afloat in a sea of debris desperately awaiting rescue from the destroyers Electra and Vampire and fearing machine-gun attacks from the skies. According to the London Gazette report by Flight Lieutenant Vigors:

'It was obvious that the three destroyers were going to take hours to pick up those men clinging to the bits of wreckage and swimming around in the filthy, oily water. Above all this the threat of another bombing and machine gun attack was imminent. Every one of those men must have realised that. Yet as I flew around, every man waved or put up his thumb as I flew over him. After an hour the lack of petrol forced me to leave, but during that hour I had seen many men in dire danger waving, cheering and joking, as if they were holiday-makers at Brighton waving at a low flying aircraft. It shook me for here was something above human nature' (The Fall of Singapore by Frank Owen, refers).

The chaos in the water following the demise of the accompanying Prince of Wales was vividly recollected in June 2005 by Commander R. V. Ward, Royal Navy:

'Non swimmers were going under and I could hear the crashing of heavy items below decks, falling from deck to deck head (floor to ceiling). There were some carley floats around but they were all more than full' (BBC WW2 People's War, refers).

513 sailors were lost from the Repulse and 327 from the Prince of Wales. After they were rescued, some sailors from Repulse manned action stations aboard the Elektra, the Gunners manning 'X' and 'Y' 4.7 inch mounts, thus enabling Electra's sailors to rescue more survivors; the dentist from the Repulse assisted the medical teams aboard Elektra with the wounded.

Having survived this encounter with the Imperial Japanese Air Service, Edwards is recorded as later becoming a British Far East Prisoner of War. He returned home and was appointed Petty Officer, being awarded the rare clasp Bomb & Mine Clearance 1945-53 to his NGS Medal.


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Sold for
£350

Starting price
£170