Special Collections

Sold between 18 July & 28 February 2018

2 parts

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A Collection of Medals to Second World War Casualties

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Lot

№ 951

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19 July 2018

Hammer Price:
£80

Three: Stoker Petty Officer H. Stead, Royal Navy, who was lost at sea when H.M.S. Branlebas, whilst on convoy duties, sunk in heavy seas off the south Devon coast, 14 December 1940

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939-45, with named Admiralty enclosure, in card box of issue, addressed to ‘Mr. M. Stead, 202 Westbourne Avenue, Gateshead, Co. Durham’, extremely fine (3) £80-120

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to Second World War Casualties.

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Collection

Harry Stead served during the Second World War as a Stoker Petty Officer in the ex-French Destroyer H.M.S. Branlebas, that had sailed to Great Britain to join the Free French forces after the capitulation of France. Charged with escorting a westbound convoy, she left Dartmouth at 6:00 p.m. on 13 December 1940, and soon ran into difficulties; her poor seaworthiness meant that she could not keep pace with the convoy in rough weather and she produced a lot of suffocating smoke. After losing contact with the convoy during the night, at 9:00 a.m. on 14 December 1940 a heavy sea caused her to break her back at the aft end of the engine room. The stern section separated, and she sank immediately, 25 miles south west of the Eddystone Lighthouse, off the south Devon coast. There were only three survivors.

Stead was amongst those killed, aged 33. He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial. His medals were sent to his father Marfitt Stead.

Sold with the recipient’s three diaries, for 1935, 1936, and 1937, during which period he was serving in the Royal Navy, based at Simonstown, South Africa.