Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second World War Persian Gulf operations B.E.M. group of six awarded to Chief Petty Officer D. Fitzsimmons, Royal Navy, late Royal Naval Reserve

British Empire Medal, (Military) G.VI.R., 1st issue (P.O. Dennis Fitzsimmons, X. 18678A); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; France and Germany Star; Defence Medal 1939-45; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., E.II.R. (JX. 801100 D. Fitzsimmons, B.E.M., P.O., H.M.S. Vesuvius), mounted as worn, contact marks, very fine or better (6) £300-350

B.E.M. London Gazette 8 June 1944. The original recommendation states:

‘Petty Officer Fitzsimmons has served for fifteen months in the office of the Senior Naval Officer, Persian Gulf. He was selected to undertake duties of Coxswain at the camp at Kher Kuwai during its transition from a signal station to a minor base for patrol ships. Conditions were at that time most primitive and he showed great initiative and resource in dealing with a multitude of matters outside the normal scope of a Petty Officer’s duties. Under the most trying climatic conditions he has always shown outstanding leadership, zeal and devotion to duty.’

Dennis Fitzsimmons was born at Donaghadee, Co. Down, Ireland in April 1915 and, having been employed at sea in the fishing trade and in the Merchant Navy, enrolled in the Royal Naval Reserve as a Seaman in December 1935.

Mobilised on the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939, he joined the armed trawler Northern Reward, operating out of the naval base H.M.S. Pyramus in the Orkneys, and remained similarly employed until taking up a new appointment in Portsmouth in March 1941. A stint at Excellent having followed, Fitzsimmons joined the depot ship Adamant in June of the same year, and served in her at Mombasa until removing to another depot ship, the Euphrates, in February 1942, in which capacity he was employed aboard the river gunboat Seamew. He had meanwhile been advanced to the temporary rate of Petty Officer.

In April 1943, he came ashore to take up duties at the naval base Adria in the Persian Gulf and, as cited above, was awarded the B.E.M. for his subsequent services at Kher Kuwai. That appointment concluded, he served once more in Euphrates in the period September 1943 to May 1944, when he came home an appointment in Victory. His final wartime appointment was in the minesweeper Michael, from May 1945, which ship operated out of the naval base Seaborn at Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Awarded the Royal Naval Reserve L.S. & G.C. Medal in October 1945, Fitzsimmons was released from service in February 1946 but quickly signed-up for a 12 year engagement in the Royal Navy. As a consequence, his earlier R.N.R. Medal was superseded by the award of his Royal Navy L.S. & G.C. Medal in February 1955. He finally came ashore as a Chief Petty Officer in January 1962; He was also entitled to the War Medal 1939-45; sold with the recipient’s original Certificates of Service.