Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Eight: Brevet Major V. H. Deane, Royal Marines, who was taken P.O.W. at Antwerp in November 1914 while serving in the R.M. Brigade: commissioned after the Great War, he served in H.M.N.Z.S. Leander 1939-43, in which period he witnessed considerable action, not least at the battle of Kolombangara off the Solomon Islands in July 1943, when Leander was torpedoed with a loss of 28 lives

1914 Star, with clasp (PO. 17284 Pte. V. H. Dean, R.M. Brigade), note surname spelling; British War Medal 1914-20 (PO. 17284 V. H. Deane, Pte., R.M.); Victory Medal 1914-19 (PO. 17284 Pte. V. H. Deane, R.M.L.I.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Pacific Star; War Medal 1939-45, together with his officially numbered Old Contemptibles’ Association lapel badge, his 1939-45 War identity disc, and an old Turkish Coin inscribed, ‘V. H. Deane, Royal Marines, Ma-Alesh’, generally very fine or better (11) £400-500

Victor Henry Deane was born in Eastney, Hampshire in May 1897 and joined the Royal Marines in June 1914. A Private in the Portsmouth Division by the outbreak of hostilities, he was embarked for Dunkirk with the R.M. Brigade in September and was taken prisoner of war at the defence of Antwerp in the following month.

Repatriated in January 1919, Deane was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, R.M. in December 1921 and enjoyed several seagoing appointments in the period leading up to the renewal of hostilities, among them H.M.S. Sussex 1929-30 and H.M.S. Dorsetshire 1933-35 and, by September 1939, he was serving as a Captain, R.M., in the cruiser Leander in the New Zealand Division.

By and large, Leander was employed in the Pacific and Indian Oceans in the period 1939-43, although she also served in the Mediterranean, and among early actions were her part in the sinking of the Italian armed merchantman Ramb I off the Maldives on 27 February 1941 and her capture of the Vichy French merchantman Charles L.D. between Mauritius and Madagasgar on the 23rd of the following month. Having then lent valuable service against Vichy forces in the Syria-Lebanon campaign and elsewhere in the Mediterranean, she returned to the Pacific. Meanwhile, on the formation of the Royal New Zealand Navy in October 1941, she was officially re-titled ‘H.M.N.Z.S.’, while for his own part, Deane was given the Brevet of Major at the end of the same year.

The Leander fought her final engagement of the War off the Solomon Islands on 13 July 1943, in what became known as the battle of Kolombangara, when Rear-Admiral Walden Lee Ainsworth’s Task Group of three cruisers - the others being the U.S.S Honolulu and U.S.S. St. Louis - and 10 destroyers, met a Japanese force under Rear-Admiral Isaki, comprising the cruiser Jintsu and five destroyers, part of the famous “Tokyo Express”, and assorted transports carrying some 1200 enemy troops and supplies. In the ensuing night action Leander contributed to the destruction of the Jintsu by accurate gunfire, but the Japanese quickly retaliated, their destroyers unleashing around 30 ‘Long Lance’ torpedoes, one of which found the Leander and killed 28 of her crew on impact - others damaged the St. Louis, the Honolulu and the destroyer Gwin, which latter had to be scuttled. And although the Leander made her way back to port without further incident, the extent of the damage inflicted on her precluded her from further operational duties.

By the war’s end, Deane was serving at the Ipswich shore establishment Wolverstone, a landing craft base and training establishment and it was presumably around this period that he qualified for the Atlantic Star. He subsequently settled in New Zealand.

Sold with the recipient’s 1939-45 uniform tunic, trousers and beret, the former complete with rank insignia, medal ribands, buttons and lanyard, together with a scrapbook with a selection of photographs from the inter-war years (approximately 25 images), including several from the propaganda film “Tell England”, filmed in Malta, in which Deane and his Marines starred as ANZACs in the Gallipoli landings, together with his named “Crossing the Line” certificate, issued aboard H.M.S. Dorsetshire in 1933 and assorted H.M. Ship Christmas cards, including three examples from H.M.S. Leander.