Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (Ply. 22114 G. McGauley, Mne., R.M.) very fine £80-100

George McGauley was born in Exeter in August 1906 and enlisted in the Royal Marines at Bristol in May 1924. Appointed to the Plymouth Division, his inter-war seagoing appointments included stints aboard H.M. Ships Ramillies, Rodney and Carlisle, in addition to service in Hong Kong in Tamar between November 1928 and December 1930, and he was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in August 1939, while based at the R.M. Depot at Deal.

The advent of hostilities also witnessed his advancement to Acting Temporary Corporal and by the War’s end he had risen to the rank of Acting Temporary Sergeant, his appointments having comprised Mashobra between December 1939 and June 1944, and Copra between the latter date and June 1945, periods of service that also witnessed his attachment to the Mobile Naval Base Defence Organisation (M.N.B.D.O.) from January 1943 to March 1944, at one stage as a Q.R. 2 Gunner with a C.A. Regiment, quite probably in the Sicily campaign.

Mashobra was a requisitioned steamship that was bombed and beached at Narvik in May 1940, an incident presumably witnessed by McGauley, and afterwards, by name at least, a shore base title for elements of the M.N.B.D.O.; Copra, meanwhile, was a blanket organisation for all R.M. landing craft crews, many coxswains being Royal Marines, among them McGauley whose service record reveals the relevant qualification: as such, he was probably employed in the famous assault on Walcheren.

McGauley was released from the Corps in December 1947 and enlisted in the Royal Marine Police in the following year.