Medals from the Collection of the late Eric Smith

Family group:

Pair: Rear-Admiral E. B. Cloete, Royal Navy

Defence and War Medals 1939-45, in their original addressed card forwarding box with related Admiralty condolence slip in the name of ‘Rear-Admiral Edward Balfour Cloete’, extremely fine

Three: Midshipman R. E. Cloete, Royal Navy, who was killed in action in H.M.S. Barham in November 1941

1939-45 Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45, in their original addressed card forwarding box with related Admiralty condolence slip in the name of ‘Midshipman Richard Edward Cloete, R.N.’, extremely fine (5)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of the late Eric Smith.

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Edward Balfour Cloete was born in 1885, the son of Lieutenant-General J. G. Cloete of Guernsey, where he was educated at Elizabeth College prior to entering Britannia as a Cadet. A Lieutenant-Commander by the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he survived the sinking of the cruiser H.M.S. Aboukir in the following month, and afterwards served in the Grand Fleet in the battleship Canada, in which he was present at Jutland. Gaining steady advancement between the Wars, one of Cloete’s final appointments was as King’s Harbour Master at Portland and he was placed on the Retired List as a Rear-Admiral in June 1936. He was, however, recalled on the renewal of hostilities, and appears to have been employed at the training establishment President - he is not listed on the Commonwealth War Graves Register, so most probably died of natural causes shortly after the end of hostilities.

Richard Edward Cloete, the son of Rear-Admiral E. B. Cloete, was killed in action in the battleship H.M.S. Barham on 25 November 1941, aged 18 years. His ship was hit by four torpedoes off the Egyptian coast, rolled over on her side and sank in five minutes, her magazines exploding as she went down - 848 officers, ratings and marines lost their lives. Cloete has no known grave and is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

Both of the above described card forwarding boxes are addressed to ‘Mrs. E. B. R. Cloete, The Poplars, Marhamchurch, Bude, Cornwall’, the widow of the Rear-Admiral and the mother of Midshipman Richard Cloete; also see Lot 1 for the Honours & Awards of Richard’s brother.