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Auction: 23001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 161

A pre-war Palestine and Second World War group of eight awarded to Stoker Petty Officer W. J. A. Parr, Royal Navy, a Channel Islander who witnessed extensive service in the Mediterranean

Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-39 (K. 66933 W. J. A. Parr, A.L. Sto., R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (K. 66933 W. J. A. Parr, A./S.P.O., H.M.S. Linnet), good very fine or better (8)

William John Alexander Parr was born in Grouville, Jersey on 17 November 1906 and entered the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in September 1925. Having then witnessed active service off Palestine in H.M.S. Ajax, he joined the recently launched coastal minelayer Linnet in December 1938.

As it transpired, he remained actively employed in the Linnet for the duration of hostilities, one London evening paper describing her as 'the happiest ship in the Mediterranean' during the period of her captaincy under Lieutenant Richard Homewood, R.N., who held that post from her commissioning through until May 1944.

She played a valuable part in the North African and Italian campaigns and was temporarily beached after having struck a mine on 1 November 1943. She was towed to Naples by the U.S. rescue and salvage ship U.S.S. Extricate and Homewood and his crew were commended for their actions on that occasion.

Owing to the Linnet's capabilities to operate in coastal waters - and Homewood's reputation for navigation - she is also believed to have been involved in clandestine operations, delivering arms and agents to occupied territories.

Live camera footage of Homewood and his crew at work is likely to be found in the Imperial War Museum film archive (ADM 365), the content of the relevant reel being described thus:

'Minelaying. LS off the port bow of HMS Plover steaming in a choppy sea. Onboard the camera ship (either Linnet or Ringdove) the Captain and his First Lieutenant consult a chart. MS along row of Mark XVII mines on the mine deck - one is decorated with a drawing of Popeye with a speech balloon declaring "ARF ARF". Crewmen secure the mines to their sinkers - CU as one man connects the battery before replacing the cover bung on the top of the mine. HA from the deck as mines move along the rails towards the stern, and a view through the stern doors as a mine drops into the sea. Another ship (possibly a M Class minelayer) is close by, laying from an open deck. Views from the weather and mine decks as the mines are dropped astern, bobbing up briefly in the ship's wake. Cut to scenes of life onboard - issue of the rum ration, ship's cat drinking from a saucer (hopefully filled with milk), two men carrying food up from the galley in oven tins, the ship's orchestra (four accordions and drums), and two rather refractory mascots - the cat and a fox cub.'

Parr, who was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in August 1940, was pensioned ashore in July 1947 and died in Portsmouth in May 1986.

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Sold for
£400

Starting price
£130