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Auction: 22003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 311

The campaign group of six awarded to Senior Commander Electrical Officer, late Commander Gunner R. C. Truscott, Royal Navy attached Royal Australian Navy, who survived the sinking of the Nestor and also served with distinction off the coast of Burma aboard Napier

Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-1939 (Gnr. (T) R. C. Truscott. R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Burma Star; War Medal 1939-45, very fine (6)

Reginald Clifford Truscott was born on 17 April 1904 at Devonport and was a scholar upon joining the Royal Navy as Boy Class II on 30 June 1919. He served aboard Furious as Petty Officer from 29 August 1933-26 March 1934, joining Defiance on 12 May 1934. Truscott was promoted Acting Gunner on 1 July 1935.

Having served during the operations off Palestine in Rowena and Hasty, he joined Vidette on 8 June 1939 and thence Nestor.

Joining the newly-commissioned destroyer H.M.A.S. Nestor in early 1941, he remained similarly employed up until her loss to an Italian bomber off Crete in June 1942, a period encompassing extensive active service in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Far East.

Having participated in the pursuit of the Bismarck in May 1941, Nestor was ordered to the Mediterranean on the Malta run and, on 15 December 1941, hunted down and destroyed the U-127 off Cape St. Vincent. Ordered to the Far East in the new year, she escorted the carrier Indomitable to Malaya and joined the British Eastern Fleet at Colombo.

Then in May 1942 Nestor was ordered back to the Mediterranean and it was in the course of Malta convoy Operation “Vigorous” in the following month that she met her end, falling victim to an Italian bomber off Crete on the 15th of that month - four of her complement were killed and although Javelin attempted to take her in tow she had to be scuttled on the following day.

Joining another Australian vessel Napier, the following years would be similarly full of action. Truscott would remain as Gunner and would have been present when she bombarded the coast of the Arakan, shared in Operation "Transom", Sourabaya, May 1944, covered the Air Raid on Sabang. As 1945 dawned, she was also present for the assaults on Ramree Island (Op Matador), Myebon (Op Pungent) and Akyab (Op Lightening).

Made Commander Gunner in June 1945, he was made Commander Electrical Officer in April 1946 and retired as Senior Commander Electrical Officer in April 1953; sold together with copied Service Records and an image of the rescued Officers of Nestor aboard Javelin, presumably shortly after her scuttling.

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Sold for
£420

Starting price
£140