Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Six: Petty Officer Steward S. M. Speare, Royal Navy

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Burma Star; War Medal 1939-45, these unnamed; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (L.15098 L. Std., H.M.S. Renown) mounted for wear, good very fine (6) £90-120

Stephen May Speare was born in St. Germans, Cornwall on 26 August 1904. On 23 January 1925 he enlisted in the Royal Navy as a Sick Berth Attendant. In September that same year he changed his trade and became an Officers’ Steward 4th Class. Appointed Steward in October 1931 and Leading Steward in September 1933. Served on the battlecruiser H.M.S. Renown, August 1939-August 1940, being awarded the L.S. & G.C. in January 1940. His ship served in the Norwegian campaign and was in action with the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. He then served on the destroyer H.M.S. Isis in the Mediterranean before proceeding to the Far East in October 1941. There he had the great fortune to be drafted onto the submarine depot ship H.M.S. Lucia, January 1942, which sailed from Singapore before the surrender to the Japanese. After serving on various vessels and bases on Ceylon, he took passage back to England aboard H.M.S. Devonshire in March 1943. Service on the minesweeper H.M.S. Rosario in the Firth of Forth was followed by service on the frigate H.M.S. Mounsey in December 1943 and service in escorting convoys across the North Atlantic. In January 1945 he attained the rank of Petty Officer Steward. Speare retired from the Royal Navy in April 1947 and died in Plymouth on 4 April 1980.

With copied service papers, death certificate and other research contained in a folder.