Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Six: Temporary Acting Petty Officer W. F. George, Royal Navy, who was Mentioned in Despatches for services in Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships (D.E.M.S.)
1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Pacific Star; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45, generally very fine

Five: Captain B. L. Carnie, Merchant Navy, who survived the torpedoing of Troopship Ettrickbank in 1942
1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Pacific Star; War Medal 1939-45, these all late claims from 1965 and officially impressed Australian-style ‘B. L. Carnie, M.N.’, extremely fine (11) £100-£140

William Frederick George was born in Chiswick, London, in April 1893, and served during the Second World War in the Royal Navy, being Mentioned in Despatches for services in Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships (London Gazette 2 June 1943).
Sold with the recipient’s post-war National Union of Seamen member’s book, stating his rate as Bosun.

Bruce Leslie Carnie was born in Gravesend, Kent, in October 1923, and first went to sea as an Apprentice in the S.S. Ettrickbank in September 1941. The vessel was on charter to the Admiralty as a Troopship, and on 15 November 1942 she was torpedoed by German submarine U-155 at 03:15, 150 miles West of Gibraltar, whilst on voyage from Gibraltar to the Clyde with a crew of 204, 66 naval ratings, and 41 gunners. She sank at 08:36, with the loss of 6 crew and 18 naval ratings. Carnie was amongst the survivors, who were taken to Gibraltar by the Norwegian destroyer Glaisdale and returned to the U.K. in the Peninsula and Oriental Line’s Mooltan the following day. He gained his Master’s Certificate and finally came ashore in the late 1960s. He subsequently claimed his Second War medals after moving to Papua and New Guinea as a Harbour Master in 1963.