Eight: Engine Room Artificer J. Gray, Royal Navy, also Police Constable, Metropolitan Police

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Burma Star, 1 clasp, Pacific, France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Police Long Service Medal, E.II.R., 1st issue (Const. John Gray) mounted as worn and housed together with a photograph of the recipient in a glazed display frame, good very fine (8) £100-140

John Gray was born in Renfrew, Scotland, on 17 October 1905, and, after a spell as an Apprentice Boilermaker from January 1923 to February 1928 served in civilian life as a Police Constable with the Metropolitan Police. Following the outbreak of the Second World War he enlisted in the Royal Navy on 25 March 1941, for the duration of the War, and served as an acting Engine Room Artificer 4th Class in H.M.S. Phoenix from 27 June 1941 to 20 May 1943; subsequent postings included service in H.M.S. Resource, 21 May to 10 October 1943; H.M.S. Nile, 31 October to 13 December 1943; H.M.S. Odyssey, 26 July to 10 October 1944; and H.M.S. Tyne, 3 November 1944 to 20 September 1945. He was released on 28 January 1946, and subsequently resumed his career with the Metropolitan Police. He died on 25 September 1964.

Sold with the recipient’s Royal Navy Parchment Certificate of Service; Engine Room Artificer’s History Sheet; Certificate of Apprenticeship, with accompanying letter of reference; Police Federation membership card; the recipient’s appointments diary for 1945; and copied birth and death certificates.