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Auction: 24111 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 983

The well-documented mounted group of seven miniature dress medals worn by Colour-Sergeant N. T. 'Taff' Davies, Royal Marines, a prominent survivor of the Royal Oak disaster

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, clasp, France and Germany; Africa Star; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R.; Civil Defence Long Service, E.II.R., mounted as worn, good very fine (7)

Norman Theodore 'Taff' Davies was born at Gosport on 1 October 1913 and joined the Royal Marines as a Boy Bugler in the summer of 1929. He was serving as a Corporal in the battleship H.M.S. Royal Oak on the outbreak of hostilities and was lucky to survive her loss a few weeks later, when she was torpedoed in Scapa Flow by the U-47. Over 830 of his shipmates were less fortunate and, as verified by an accompanying obituary, he would later become a prominent voice for those who died - and survived - the disaster:

'In more recent years, with others, he formed the Royal Oak Survivors Association, of which he was still secretary at the time of his death. He was largely responsible for arranging the annual reunions at Scapa Flow and Portsmouth, including visits by members of the crew of the U-47, the U-Boat that sank the Oak. He also advised the authors of at least two books concerning this notorious sinking as well as taking part in various radio and television programmes commemorating the 25th and 50th anniversaries of the event.'

Davies' subsequent wartime appointments included the battleship Queen Elizabeth (December 1940-April 1942), and the cruisers Carlisle (April-June 1942) and Birmingham (July 1943- December 1944). Awarded the L.S. & G.C. Medal in October 1946, he was pensioned ashore as a Colour-Sergeant in October 1952.

He died in Guildford in October 1989, where he had been a long-served member of the Civil Defence.

Sold with an extensive archive of original documentation and photographs, including his parchment Certificate of Service and Discharge Certificate, and a painted H.M.S. Royal Oak plaster wall-plaque, together with further documentation relating to his father, Thomas William Davies, who also served in the Royal Marines (1899-1920), and a Boatswain's whistle.


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Sold for
£80

Starting price
£30