Five: Major J. C. Stott, Royal Fusiliers, late Honourable Artillery Company, who served with S.O.E.’s Force 133 in Jugoslavia and later with 1 Special Force in Italy

1939-45 Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Efficiency Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue, Territorial, with two additional service clasps (Major J. C. Stott R.F.) on H.A.C. ribbon extremely fine (5) £600-£800

M.I.D. London Gazette 23 May 1946 (Mediterranean theatre).

Efficiency Medal 16 April 1940; 1st Clasps 16 April 1943; 2nd Clasp 16 April 1946

John Charles Stott was born in London on 19 September 1908. He served in the ranks of the H.A.C. Infantry from 1928 to 1 October 1939, when he was granted an Emergency Commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers. He served in France with the B.E.F. south of the Somme from April 1940 and on 3 May 1940 joined Syme’s Battalion in Beauman’s Division. Syme’s Battalion was distinguished in holding up the 5th Panzer Division for several hours outside Rouen in the late afternoon of 8 June, before being forced to retire south of the Seine. During the night the remainder of Beaumont’s Division retired across the river. Falling back on Cherbourg, the division was evacuated on 16-17 June, and Stott arrived back in England on 18 June 1940.

Appointed temporary Captain and War Substantive Lieutenant w.e.f. 1 November 1940, he attended various courses in the U.K. before being posted to the R.A.F. Iraq Levies from 13 July 1942, serving at Basrah, Habbaniya, Hamadan, and finally at Ramleh, until 22 March 1943. He was next posted to M.O.4 G.H.Q. M.E.F., the name, at the time, of the Special Operations Executive in the Middle East, arriving at Cairo on 2 June 1943. Here he underwent parachute training at 4 M.E.T.S. from 15-20 June, and at M.E. 102 in June and July. Fluent in French, fairly fluent in German and Italian, Stott also had a working knowledge of Serbo Croat, having previously spent 9 months in Yugoslavia and Serbia. He consequently served with Force 133 in Yugoslavia from August 1943 to May 1944. He thereafter served with the S.O.E. in Italy with No. 1 Special Force C.M.F., until April 1945.

Sold with a good quantity of original documents including record of service (Army Form B-199A); Army Medal Office letter enclosing ribbon and rosettes for Efficiency Medal; Officers’ Release Book; a good number of Telegrams from Stott to a Mrs Ross at Huddersfield, seemingly sent every month during 1942-45, though not all present, and mostly with a simple message ‘Am fit and well’; 5 typed letters from S.O.E. officers to Mrs Ross, January-March 1945, advising that ‘her friend, Captain Stott is very fit and well and in the best of spirits’; embroidered cloth parachute wings; National Identity Card and various post-war official service correspondence; and various wartime maps of Europe, two printed on silk.