Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Seven: Master at Arms H. G. Hughes, Royal Navy

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, clasp, France and Germany; Africa Star; Pacific Star; Defence and War Medals; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (MX. 766734 M.A.A., H.M.S. Scylla), ship’s name officially corrected on the last, generally good very fine (7) £140-160

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals for Services at Sea from the Collection of the Late Oliver Stirling Lee.

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Henry George Hughes was born at Frindsbury, Kent in December 1905 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in May 1921. Coming ashore as “time expired” in December 1935, he enrolled in the R.F.R. and was awarded the Royal Fleet Reserve L.S. Medal in June 1939, an award which he would have returned on receipt of his Royal Navy L.S. & G.C. Medal in November 1945. Recalled in the rate of Leading Seaman in June 1939, Hughes’ first seagoing appointment was aboard the cruiser H.M.S. Sussex between August 1942 and May 1944, a commission that witnessed her sinking the German tanker Hohenfriedburg 500 miles W.S.W. of Cape Finisterre on 26 February 1943, and afterwards operating against blockade runners in the area S.W. of the Cocos Islands. Hughes went on to serve in the destroyer depot ship Woolwich from May 1944 to January 1945, during which period he was presumably detached for duties off the Normandy coast, and aboard the escort carrier Begum from January to April 1945, during which period he was advanced to Master at Arms. Finally, in June 1945, he joined the cruiser Scylla. He was pensioned ashore in July 1949; sold with a quantity of original documentation, including a “True Copy of Certificate of Service”.