A military B.E.M. group of eight awarded to Chief Petty Officer Leonard Charles Mills, Royal Navy

British Empire Medal, (Military) E.II.R. (C.P.O. D/JX.137768); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals, these unnamed; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 2nd issue (JX.137768 P.O., H.M.S. Drake) slight contact marks, very fine and better (8) £300-350

Leonard Charles Mills was born c. 1917. Entering the Royal Navy before the war, he was appointed a Petty Officer c.1942 and Chief Petty Officer c.1942. A specialist in Gunnery. As Gunnery Instructor he trained the Devonport Field Gun Team which set a new record at the Royal Tournament in 1953. He was presented to the Queen aboard H.M.S. Eagle at Malta on 5 May 1954 , at the end of the Royal Tour. Awarded the B.E.M. in the News Years Honours of 1959, he retired from the Royal Navy in 1962.

With photograph of the Devonport Field Gun’s Crew of 1953 - featuring C.P.O. Mills as Instructor; Buckingham Palace slip signed by the Queen to Mills expressing regret that she was unable to personally award the B.E.M.; letter of congratulations from the City of Plymouth, dated 2 January 1959, to Mills living at ‘78 Ayreville Road, Beacon Park, Plymouth’; card commemorating his presentation to the Queen in May 1954; letter, mounted on card, from Admiralty House, just prior to his retirement, dated 30 August 1962; together with a copied letter from Commander J. M. B. Walkey, O.B.E., R.N., dated 23 April 1981, giving some background details on C.P.O. Mills, writing, ‘.... he was the best Chief Petty Officer that I have met in 37 years in the Navy, completely loyal, utterly trustworthy (except occasionally on paynights), and the younger seamen almost worshipped the ground he trod on ....’