Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second World War M.B.E. group of seven awarded to Shipwright Commander H. Watson, Royal Navy

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Military) Member’s 2nd type breast badge; 1914-15 Star (M. 6369 Shpt. 2, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Wt. Shpt., R.N.); Defence and War Medals; Coronation 1937, mounted as worn, generally very fine (7) £180-220

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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M.B.E. London Gazette 30 June 1944.

Harry Watson was born in Wales in June 1892 and entered the Royal Navy as a Shipwright 2nd Class in August 1913. The outbreak of hostilities found him serving in H.M.S. Hercules, in which battleship he was present at the Battle of Jutland, and he remained similarly employed until April 1917 when he was advanced to Acting Carpenter. Two months later he joined the Melbourne on attachment to the Royal Australian Navy and he was advanced to the newly created rank of Warrant Shipwright at the War’s end.

Watson remained a regular between the wars, was promoted to Shipwright Lieutenant in June 1936 and appears to have served for most of the 1939-45 War in the Admiralty’s Naval Equipment Division. Having received his M.B.E. at an investiture in November 1944, he was finally placed on the Retired List as a Shipwright Commander in December 1946, a rare rank indeed, just one such appointment being made each year.