Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Post-War B.E.M. group of six awarded to Chief Petty Officer Writer T. F. Dunbar, Royal Navy, who spent three years as a Prisoner of War following the sinking of H.M.S. Exeter in the Java Sea, March 1942

British Empire Medal, (Military) E.II.R. (C.P.O. Wtr. Thomas F. Dunbar. D/Mx. 49425) partially officially corrected; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Pacific Star; War Medal 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (Mx.49426 T. F. Dunbar. C.P.O. Wtr. H.M.S. Drake.) scratch marks to obverse fields of first and last, otherwise nearly extremely fine (6) £300-400

B.E.M. London Gazette 1 January 1955.

Thomas Fraser Dunbar was born in Edinburgh on 15 September 1913, and was educated at George Heriot’s School. He enlisted in the Royal Navy as a Writer on 22 November 1932. He served during the Second World War in H.M.S. Exeter, and was captured by the Japanese on 2 March 1942 following Exeter’s sinking the previous day during the Second Battle of the Java Sea. He spent the next three years, along with 711 of his former crewmates, at the Prisoner of War camp at Macassar; was Mentioned in Despatches ‘for good work whilst a Prisoner of War in the Far East’ (London Gazette 16 July 1946); and was only released following the Japanese capitulation at the end of the War.