CAMPAIGN GROUPS AND PAIRS 848 Five: Flight Lieutenant S. G. V. Saker, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
1939-45 STAR; FRANCE AND GERMANY STAR; DEFENCE ANDWARMEDALS 1939-45; CADET FORCES LONG SERVICE, E.II.R. (Flt. Lt. S. G. V. Saker, R.A.F.V.R. (T.)), mounted as worn, very fine and better (5)
£100-120
Stephen George Valentine Saker served in the Royal Air Force from September 1941 until September 1946, when he was released in the rank of Corporal. Subsequently commissioned into the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve as a Pilot Officer in June 1962, he attained the rank of Flight Lieutenant prior to his retirement.
Sold with a good quantity of original documentation, including British Red Cross Society/St. John Ambulance certificates in the recipient’s name, dated in the period 1940-41, the B.R.C.S. example for an Anti-Gas Course; his R.A.F. Service and Release Book and commission warrant for the rank of Pilot Officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, dated 5 June 1962; and other family photographs and documentation, including what would appear to be memorabilia relating to his wife, Margaret (nee Longden), a Driver in the A.T.S.
849
An extremely well documented Second World War P.O.W’s campaign service pair awarded to Lance-Corporal S. Clayton, South Staffordshire Regiment, who was captured in May 1940 and repatriated in October 1943
1939-45 STAR; WAR MEDAL 1939-45, in their original addressed card forwarding box, extremely fine (2) £200-250
Samuel Clayton was born in Willenhall, Staffordshire in December 1914 and enlisted in the Territorials in February 1939. Joining the B. E.F. out in France as a member of 1/6th Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment in early April 1940, he was taken P.O.W. in the following month. A local newspaper article takes up he story:
‘A Wildenhall soldier buried his head deeper into the filthy mud as bullets began to fly. Inside the rickety tin shelter the sound of rapid gunfire blocked out every thought. Only the moans of his wounded companions filtered through to break the frightening spell. For Lance-Corporal Sam Clayton, fresh from his peaceful Black Country home, the Second World War had really begun. It was 1940 and 24-years-old Sam had been marching with the 1/6th South Staffordshire Regiment out of the French village of Eecke when the advancing Germans began shelling. Sam’s unit were to keep going towards the beaches of Dunkirk, but Sam stayed behind in a roadside shelter to help a wounded friend. It was there he was captured by an advancing German tank and marched off to begin three years as a prisoner of war in Nazi camps all over Europe ... Sam had been married only four years when he joined the prisoners’ column to begin his 300 mile journey to the German border. And only by risking his life to put a note under a water can at the side of the road could he tell his wife Mary that he was still alive. The note was picked up by a ministering nun and sent to England ... ’
That very note - in its Dutch Red Cross forwarding envelope - forms part of the accompanying archive, as does a hand written letter from Captain James Beattie, dated at the Redcliffe Hotel, Paignton, Devon on 9 June 1940, addressed to Clayton’s wife and reporting on her husband’s probable capture - ‘At Eecke he was with an officer and several others looking after two wounded when a surprise attack by tanks cut this party off from the rest of the Company. We think that they had little chance to fight and our hope is that they were taken prisoner.’
Clayton was subsequently repatriated from Stalag XX1 A at Lamsdorf in Germany in October 1943, suffering from chronic nephritis, and was discharged at Shrewsbury in January 1944 as permanently unfit for any form of military service - conduct ‘Exemplary’.
Sold with mass of original documentation, mainly wartime correspondence between the recipient and his wife, including censored letters and postcards sent from the B.E.F. in April-May 1940 (approximately 10) and during years as a P.O.W. (approximately 150), and accordingly a remarkable and moving record of separated husband and wife; together with correspondence of a happier nature, concerning the recipient’s repatriation, and his Soldier’s Service and Pay Book.
850
Pair: Radio Officer David Oxspring, Naval Auxiliary Personnel (Merchant Navy), killed in action when serving on H. M.S. Manistee, 24 February 1941
1939-45 STAR; WAR MEDAL 1939-45, unnamed, extremely fine (2) £70-90
Radio Officer David Oxspring, Naval Auxiliary Personnel (Merchant Navy) was killed in action on 24 February 1941, aged 41 years, when the armed boarding vessel H.M.S. Manistee was torpedoed by the German submarine U-107 when in convoy, 500 miles south of Iceland. There were no survivors from the officers and crew of the ship. Oxspring’s name is commemorated on the Liverpool Naval Memorial. He was the son of David and Helen Oxspring and the husband of Catherine Barclay Oxspring.
With card forwarding box addressed to ‘Mrs C. B. Oxspring, c/o Messrs. Wordsworth & Co. Solicitors, 39 Lombard Street, London, E. C.3’; together with named ‘Admiralty’ condolence slip. With copied research.
www.dnw.co.uk
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