Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part I)

Four: Skipper J. L. Squibb, Royal Naval Reserve, late Mercantile Marine

British War and Mercantile Marine Medals 1914-18 (John L. Squibb); 1939-45 Star; War Medal 1939-45, good very fine (4)
£80-100

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the collection of Angela and the late Douglas Bertram.

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John Lewis Squibb, who was born at Dundee in 1895, was indentured as an Ordinary Apprentice to the Gow, Harrison & Company shipping line at Glasgow in February 1912, aged 16 years. His apprenticeship completed by 1916, he joined the S.S. Strathspey as a Third Mate in June of the same year and, one year later, the S.S. Laurel Leaf, in which latter vessel he was employed on behalf of the Admiralty until June 1918, when he joined the S.S. Albatross.

Squibb appears to have left the Merchant Navy in 1923, following several voyages to the Far East as a Second Mate, but returned to sea on coasting duties in home waters in October 1942, when he was appointed a Mate in H.M.Y. Ocean Rover. He became a Skipper, R.N.R. of the same vessel in the following year, and remained employed on coasting duties until his release in September 1945.

Sold with a quantity of original documents, including parchment Ordinary Apprentice’s Indenture (Scotland), date stamped at Glasgow on 19 February 1912, the reverse with completed endorsements and dated 29 February 1916; Continuous Certificate of Discharge (No. 869275), with entries dating from 1916 to 1945, and portrait photograph, etc.; parchment Privy Council for Trade Certificate of Competency (as Second Mate for Foreign-Going Steamships only), dated 10 April 1917; Certificate of Discharge, dated 5 September 1945; and assorted uniform insignia, etc., including Merchant Navy officer’s cap badge on its original woven band.