Auction Catalogue

17 September 2020

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Live Online Auction

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Lot

№ 354

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17 September 2020

Hammer Price:
£120

Three: Sergeant G. M. White, Kenya Regiment, who was killed in action when the S.S. Khedive Ismail was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-27 in the Indian Ocean, with the loss of 1,297 lives

1939-45 Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45, with named Army Council enclosure, extremely fine (3) £70-£90

G. M. White served as a Sergeant with the Kenya Regiment during the Second World War, and was killed in action whilst being conveyed in the troopship S.S. Khedive Ismail on 12 February 1944, when the ship, as part of Convoy KR 8 sailing from Mombassa to Colombo, was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-27 in the Indian Ocean. Of her 1,324 passengers, including 996 members of the East African Artillery, 271 Royal Naval personnel, 19 WRNS, and 63 nurses, only 208 men and 6 women survived. 1,220 men and 77 women were killed, in what was the third largest loss of life from Allied shipping in the Second World War, and the largest loss of life to servicewomen in the history of the British Empire and Commonwealth. White is commemorated on the East Africa Memorial, Kenya.

Sold with copied research.