GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY 943
An early Second World War D.S.C. group of nine attributed to Captain L. A. Hill, Merchant Navy and Royal Naval Reserve, who was decorated for his services in the trawler Sicyon
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS,
G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1940’ and privately inscribed ‘L. A. Hill’; 1939-45 STAR; ATLANTIC STAR; AFRICA STAR, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; ITALY STAR; WAR MEDAL 1939-45; CORONATION 1953; ROYAL NAVAL RESERVE DECORATION,
G.VI.R., with E.II.R. Bar, the reverse officially dated ‘1939’, mounted as worn, together with his PAST MASTER’S JEWEL OF THE COMPANY OFMASTERMARINERS, silver-gilt and enamel, the reverse officially inscribed ‘L. A. Hill, Master, 1969-70’, in its case of issue, good very fine and better (9)
£800-1000 D.S.C. London Gazette 11 July 1940: ‘For good services in the Royal Navy since the outbreak of war.’
Leslie Alfred Hill, who was born at Forest Gate, Essex, in November 1903, was educated at Pangbourne Naval College and joined the P. & O. as a 4th Officer in 1924, qualifying for his Master’s certificate in November 1934.
In common with other Merchant Navy officers, he was also commissioned in the Royal Naval Reserve, gaining appointment as a Sub. Lieutenant in April 1926 and advancement to Lieutenant in August 1932, and it was in the latter rank that he joined the requisitioned trawler T. R. Ferrens on the outbreak of hostilities. Shortly thereafter, he removed to another minesweeping trawler, H.M.S. Sicyon, then under the command of William Masson, an R.N.R. skipper, though in early 1941 he assumed command of the same ship in the rank of Lieutenant- Commander. The exact circumstances behind his subsequent award of the D.S.C. remain unknown, but by way of illustrating the diverse role played by such trawlers, it is worth noting that a few days after his award was announced in the London Gazette in July 1940, the Sicyon picked up 21 survivors from the Swedish merchantman O. A. Brodin, which had been torpedoed by the U-57 west of Mull Head in the Orkneys. He was invested with his D.S.C. at Buckingham Palace in September 1940.
Relinquishing his command of the Sicyon in mid-1941, Hill removed to the Rosyth depot Cochrane at the end of the year, where he served as an Assistant to the Staff Minesweeping Officer, the first of a series of staff appointments that extended until the end of the War. Thus his subsequent services on the Staff of the N.O.I.C. at Phillipville, Algeria from March 1943, the C.-in-C. Levant from December 1943, and the Flag Officer, Tunisia from February 1944. Finally, in July 1945, he became Chief Staff Officer to the N.O.I.C. Naples, and he was not released from such duties until 1948, having latterly been Assistant to the Second Sea Lord.
Advanced to Captain in December 1952, Hill was awarded the Coronation Medal in 1953 (verified on the official roll), a Bar to his R. N.R. Decoration in May 1957, and retired from the R.N.R. in November of the following year. He had, meanwhile, returned to seagoing duties with P. & O., in addition to getting involved with related organisations. Thus his election to Membership of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners, followed by service on the Court of Assistants 1957-66 and election as a Warden at the end of the latter year. And, as verified by the above Past master’s Jewel, his appointment as Master of the Company 1969-70. Hill also served as a member of the Council of the Missions to Seamen from 1959 until his death, and on the Board of management of the Royal Merchant Navy School at Bearwood, from 1964-68, latterly as Chairman; sold with a quantity of research.
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