Four: Midshipman P. T. de la G. Grissell, Royal Navy, winner of the King’s Medal at the R.N.C. Dartmouth in 1941

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Pacific Star, clasp, Burma; War Medal 1939-45, the whole contained in an old leather fitted case, the inside lid with recessed original Admiralty condolence slip in the name of ‘Midshipman Pierce Thomas de la Garde Grissell’, together with Royal Naval College Darmtouth, King’s Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue (P. T. de la G. Grissell), reverse panel dated, ‘1941’, 44mm., 9ct. gold, 57.85g., hallmarks for London 1947, in case, Ref. B.H.M. 4368, sim., extrermely fine and rare (5) £800-900

Ex D.N.W. 2 April 2004, lot 1209.

Pierce Thomas de la Garde Grissell, the son of Lieutenant-Colonel T. de la G. Grissell of Waterston, Dorset, died on 10 October 1942, aged 18 years, while serving in the cruiser H.M.S. Dragon in the Far East; having no known grave, his name is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

Re-commissioned on a war footing in July 1939, the Dragon was sent to the South Atlantic and steamed many thousands of miles as escort to important merchant ship convoys. The Dragon then went to the Far East in November 1941, and was guarding waters around the Malay Peninsula when Japan entered the war. For a time she flew the flag of the Commander-in-Chief, Eastern Fleet, an unexpected distinction for a light cruiser more then twenty years old, and was involved in escort duties to the Singapore convoys. She later became part of the short-lived “Western Strike Force”, which was established to protect the Sunda Strait from Japanese submarines, thus providing shipping with an escape route to the West. With the fall of Java, the Dragon sailed for Ceylon, from where she remained employed on escort duties until the end of 1942, when she returned to the U.K. In the interim, in May 1942, she participated in the capture of Vichy-held Madagasgar.