Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An attributed family group:

Four: Ordinary Seaman G. N. Totterdell, Royal Navy

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45, all privately engraved ‘C/JX. 374499 Ord. Smn. G. N. Totterdell, R.N., H.M.S. Firedrake’, good very fine or better

Four: Leading Telegraphist R. G. Totterdell, Royal Navy

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45, all unnamed as issued, good very fine or better (8) £60-80

The sons of George and Gertrude Totterdell, of Springfield, Essex, Ronald Gordon, aged 21 years, and Gerald Norman, aged 23 years, were both lost in H.M.S. Firedrake on 16 December 1942, when that destroyer, as part of convoy ON 153, was torpedoed and sunk by the U-211 in the North Atlantic with heavy loss of life; sold with full details, including a copied feature from the Essex Weekly News, dated 1 January 1943, which explains how the two brothers came to serve aboard the same ship.