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Auction: 21101 - Orders, Decorations and Medals e-Auction No. 2 - including Masonic Jewels
Lot: 57

A rare 'Yangtze incident' casualties Naval General Service Medal awarded to Ordinary Seaman S. W. A. Walsingham, Royal Navy, who was killed in action aboard H.M.S. London on 21 April 1949

Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Yangtze 1949 (C/SSX661463 S. W. A. Walsingham. Ord. Smn. R.N.), partially officially re-impressed naming, good very fine

Stanley William Arthur Walsingham was born in Birmingham on 29 October 1930 and served aboard H.M.S. London during the Yangtze incident. Of those historic days, Commander R. F. Leonard, D.S.O., R.N., recalled those lost:

'These guns were well camouflaged and impossible to spot and it was they who caused most of our casualties. The last battery ceased fire at 1340. We had been under heavy fire for a total of 48 minutes, spread over a period of three hours. Our casualties were thirteen killed, fourteen seriously wounded and about 45 lightly wounded. Two of the seriously wounded unhappily died later.'

Walsingham, aged just 18, is buried in Grave 281, Section H of the Hungjao Road Cemetery, Shanghai; sold together with cap tally.



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Sold for
£3,000

Starting price
£700