Previous Lot Next Lot

Auction: 23001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 191

Six: Acting Able Seaman H. W. Newnham, Royal Navy, a Gun Layer aboard a Defensively Armed Merchant Ship

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, clasp, France and Germany; Africa Star; Pacific Star; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45, all unnamed as issued, mounted as worn, with original service papers, very fine (6)

Harry Walter Newnham was born at Lewisham, London on 18 June 1910. Working as a painter prior to enlistment he joined the Royal Navy on 2 November 1942 as an Ordinary Seaman and was posted to the training camp Glendower. A training camp at the Llyn Peninsula, near Pwllheli in North Wales, Glendower had been built by the famous holiday camp entrepreneur Billy Butlin to meet the training demands of an expanded navy, and it served as an overflow camp to Royal Arthur.

Proving capable during his training, Newnham was promoted Able Seaman on 6 February 1943 and later that year he was posted to President III for service with the Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships. Rated as a gun layer, his role would have been ensuring the true aim of the defensive guns, an especially important task when one considers that the crews of these vessels were often far less experienced than their counterparts in the Royal Navy. The emblem 'Q' on the recipient's arm patch suggests his role may have been with Q-ships. Newnham was in recipient of five good conduct chevrons between 31 December 1943-24 January 1946, that latter date being his final day of service before being discharged to the Reserve; sold together with original service papers and a D.E.M.S. gun-layer's arm patch along with copied research relating to D.E.M.S.

Subject to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium. For more information please view Terms and Conditions for Buyers.

Sold for
£120

Starting price
£100