Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Second World War B.E.M. group of four awarded to Boatswain T. A. C. Harris, Merchant Navy, who also won the King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct on the occasion he downed an enemy aircraft off the Humber in February 1942, though wounded in several places

British Empire Medal, (Civil) G.VI.R., 1st issue (Thomas Albert Carden Harris); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf representative of the King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct, good very fine (4) £300-350

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Awards to Merchant Seamen and D.E.M.S. Gunners.

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B.E.M. London Gazette 4 June 1943.

King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct London Gazette 12 May 1942:

‘For brave conduct when their ships encountered enemy ships, submarines, aircraft or mines.’

Thomas Albert Carden Harris, who was born in Folkestone in April 1885, likely served in the Mercantile Marine during the Great War.

A Boatswain aboard the S.S. Helder by the renewal of hostilities, he first saw action off St. Catherine’s Point, Isle of Wight, on 30 June 1940, when his ship’s gunfire contributed to the destruction of an E-Boat - ‘the other one ran away, like all good for nothing Germans, and the Helder got off without a scratch’ (accompanying copied letter by her Master refers).

But it was for his subsequent good work on the Helder’s 12-pounder in an action against enemy aircraft off the Humber on 5 February 1942 that he won his King’s Commendation. On that date, enemy machine-gun fire wounded Harris, but he remained at his gun and was credited with the aircraft’s destruction, a Naval officer later informing the ship’s Master that ‘one German body was found completely decapitated, the very best way to deal with all Huns’. In his response, the Master wrote:

‘I visited my Boatswain, T. A. C. Harris, at Grimsby & District Hospital today. He is making splendid progress and I expect he will be there for another seven days. He had seven small pieces of shrapnel in him, four in the fleshy part of his leg, and three in his arm. Today, four have been taken out of his leg ... ’

Adding the B.E.M. to his accolades in the summer of 1943, while still employed in the Helder, Harris served latterly in the S.S. Dearne, and finally came ashore in July 1945; sold with further details.