Auction Catalogue

24 & 25 June 2009

Starting at 2:00 PM

.

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

Lot

№ 1023 x

.

25 June 2009

Hammer Price:
£1,800

A Second World War Normandy landings D.S.M. awarded to Sick Berth Attendant S. G. Willmott, Royal Navy, attached 559th (Landing Craft) Flotilla

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (S.B.A. S. G. Willmott, C/MX. 111823), extremely fine £1400-1600

D.S.M. London Gazette 14 November 1944:

‘For gallantry, skill, determination and undaunted devotion to duty during the landing of Allied Forces on the coast of Normandy.’

The original recommendation states:

‘This rating displayed great coolness and efficiency in attending to a Marine with two broken legs, crushed between his own craft and an L.C.M. A heavy sea was running, and in pitch darkness Willmott rendered first-aid, and took him by boat to an L.S.T.’

Stanley George Willmott, a native of North Finchley, London, was serving in a Maintenance Party of 559th Flotilla, as part of Force “G”, at the time of the above cited deeds - he was recommended by Captain G. V. M. Dolphin, R.N., the S.O. of Gold Beach Sub-Area. Most likely, therefore, the wounded Marine was a member of 47 R.M. Commando, which unit was charged with landing on the west flank of “Gold” shortly before dawn on D-Day, where some 2500 enemy beach obstacles extended along three miles of foreshore and caused considerable trouble - four of their Landing Craft, Assault (L.C.A.) were sunk.

Willmott received his D.S.M. at a Buckingham Palace investiture on 15 May 1945.