GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY 8
A Second World War O.B.E. group of nine awarded to Commander H. L. S. Baker, Royal Navy, on loan to Greek Government 1936-46
THE MOST EXCELLENT ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge; British War and Victory Medals (S. Lt. H. L. S. Baker. R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals; Greece, MEDAL FOR OUSTANDING ACTS 1940, mounted on board for display together with companion set of mounted miniature medals, British Legion lapel badge, and named card box of issue for Second War medals, nearly extremely fine (18)
£300-360 O.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1944: ‘For services in connection with the War.’
Henry Leslie Spofforth Baker joined the Royal Navy as a Midshipman, 1 January 1916; Sub-Lieutenant, 15 September 1918; Lieutenant 15 September 1920; Lieutenant-Commander, 15 September 1928. During the Great War he served aboard Bellerophon, January 1916, Peregrine, April 1918, and Tintagel, November 1918. He was on Submarine Course from December 1923 and was afterwards appointed to the following vessels: K 6 (submarine), R 4 (submarine), Seawolf (destroyer), H 50 (submarine, in command), Glorious (aircraft carrier), L 16 (submarine, in command), L 53 (submarine, in command), and Proteus (submarine, in command), until 8 March 1936 when he was placed on loan to the Greek Government until July 1946. He retired with the rank of Commander and died in Switzerland on 2 August 1961, buried at St Moritz. Sold with research notes and original Admiralty letter confirming Second War medals.
9
A post-war O.B.E. group of seven awarded to Captain P. L. Cloete, Royal Navy
THE MOST EXCELLENT ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, silver-gilt; 1939-45 STAR; ATLANTIC STAR, 1 clasp, France and Germany; AFRICA STAR, 1 clasp, North Africa 1942-43; DEFENCE ANDWARMEDALS 1939-45; NAVALGENERAL SERVICE 1915-62, 1 clasp, Near East (Cdr. P. L. Cloete, O.B.E., R.N.), mounted court-style as worn, the Stars and clasps gilded, generally good very fine (7)
£400-500
Provenance: Eric Smith Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, November 2009. O.B.E. London Gazette 1 June 1953.
Peter Laurence Cloete, the son of Rear-Admiral E. B. Cloete, R.N., was appointed a Naval Cadet in May 1931 and, having attended the Royal Navy’s Engineering College and been advanced to Midshipman, joined the cruiser H.M.S. Leander, in which ship he was serving as a Lieutenant (E.) by the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939. Leander served in the Mediterranean and East Indies 1940-41, and sank the Italian armed merchant cruiser Ramb I in the Indian Ocean in February of the latter year.
Removing to the cruiser H.M.S. Argonaut in August 1941, Cloete remained similarly employed until coming ashore to the Columbo base Lanka in September 1944, thereby sharing in her Battle Honours for North Africa 1942 and Normandy 1944, and gaining advancement to Lieutenant-Commander (E.) at the time of the Normandy landings. So, too, in such notable actions as the destruction of four enemy supply ships and a destroyer north of Tunis in December 1942 and, less happily, an attack by the Italian submarine Mocenigo in February 1943, when Argonaut’s bow and stern were blown off - subsequent repairs being undertaken in the U.S.A. and U.K.
Post-war, after promotion to Commander (E.), he served in the cruiser H.M.S. Belfast and the battleship H.M.S. Duke of York, and was awarded his O.B.E. in the Coronation Honours List in 1953, while serving in the cruiser H.M.S. Jamaica, which distinction he received at a Buckingham Palace investiture in the following month. Appointments in the aircraft carriers H.M.S. Ark Royal and Eagle ensued, in which latter ship he is believed to have qualified for his “Near East” clasp in 1956.
Cloete, a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and the Royal Institute of Naval Architects, retired in the rank of Captain (E.) and died in May 1971.
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