Auction Catalogue

19 & 20 March 2008

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

Lot

№ 1463

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20 March 2008

Hammer Price:
£2,700

A fine Second World War D.S.M. group of five awarded to Able Seaman H. L. Bray, Royal Navy, a long served member of Coastal Forces who was decorated for his gallant work as an M.T.B. twin-Oerlikon gunlayer in a firefight with E-Boats in January 1945

Distinguished Service Medal
, G.VI.R. (A.B. H. L. Bray, P/JX. 314097); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Defence and War Medals, the first with one or two edge bruises and surface scratches, otherwise good very fine or better (5) £1200-1500

D.S.M. London Gazette 24 April 1945:
‘For leadership, daring and resource whilst serving in Light Coastal Forces, in successfully repelling an attack on a convoy by E-Boats.’

The original recommendation states:
‘This rating was twin-Oerlikon gunlayer on M.T.B. 446 during an action with E-Boats on the night of 22 January 1945. His fire was accurate and well controlled and he scored repeated hits on one of the E-Boats. His bearing throughout the action in the face of heavy return fire was cool and courageous. Able Seaman Bray has served in Motor Gun Boats and Motor Torpedo Boats for two and a half years, taking part in numerous actions against the enemy. At all times his conduct has been exemplary and his gunlaying of the highest order.’

Hammond Leslie Bray, a native of Bilston, Staffordshire, was one of three crew members of M.T.B. 446 to be honoured for the above cited action off the Thames Estuary, the other two, both ratings, being awarded “mentions”. That evening, three groups of E-Boats set out to attack our convoys, one of them being engaged by M.T.Bs of the 35th Flotilla near Tongue Sand - a confused action ensued in which one enemy boat, S-119, was sunk, most probably as a result of a collision.

Sold with a portrait photograph of him, the reverse captioned, “Wolverhampton, wounded.’