Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second War B.E.M. group of ten awarded to Lieutenant-Commander J. G. Norfolk, Royal Naval Reserve, late Royal Navy

British Empire Medal, (Military) G.VI.R., 1st issue (S.C.P.O. James G. Norfolk, C/MX. 52737); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Korea 1950-53, 1st issue (C.S.O. J. G. Norfolk, R.N.); U.N. Korea 1950-54, unnamed as issued; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 2nd issue (J. G. Norfolk, B.E.M., S.C.P.O. (V.), H.M.S. Triumph); Royal Naval Reserve Officer’s Decoration, E.II.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1977’, mounted court-style as worn, the L.S. & G.C. with one or two minor official corrections, contact marks an occasional edge bruise, otherwise very fine and better (10) £500-£700

Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, September 2011.

B.E.M. London Gazette 1 January 1946.

James George Norfolk was born in Southwark, London in August 1916 and entered the Royal Navy as Supply Probationer in May 1936. A Leading Supply Probationer serving in the cruiser H.M.S. York on the renewal of hostilities, he served off Norway and in a number of Mediterranean operations until his ship was disabled in an Italian explosive motorboat attack in Suda Bay on 22 May 1941. Thereafter, until August 1946, Norfolk served as a Stores Petty Officer at the Alexandria base Nile, services that resulted in his award of the B.E.M.

Appointed to the acting rank of Commissioned Stores Officer in May 1951, while serving in the aircraft carrier Triumph off Korea, he removed to another vessel employed in those waters - the ferry carrier Unicorn - before the War’s end, and was confirmed in his commissioned rank in March 1954. On leaving regular R.N. employment, Norfolk obtained a post in the Severn Division of the Royal Naval Reserve, in which capacity he was advanced to Lieutenant-Commander in December 1970 and awarded the R.N.R. Decoration in 1977.

Sold with the recipient’s Parchment Certificate of Service; Supply Ratings’ and Stores Rating’s History Sheets; a passport-sized photograph of the recipient; and various copied research.