Pair: Acting Engine Room Artificer 4th Class G. Winston, Royal Navy

British War and Victory Medals (M.17617 Act. E.R.A.4, R.N.); Silver War Badge (R.N.16865) good very fine (3) £70-90

George Winston was born in Swansea, Glamorganshire, on 23 January 1894. A Fitter and Turner by occupation, he entered the Royal Navy as an Acting E.R.A. 4th Class on 6 December 1915. He served on the destroyer Defender, December 1916-October 1917. After an attempt at suicide on 31 August 1917, he was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital at Plymouth, and in November 1917 he was discharged invalided and subsequently awarded the Silver War Badge.

His attempt at suicide resulted in the award of a Royal Humane Society Medal in bronze to Engine Room Artificer Albert H. Allen, Royal Navy. The citation reads, ‘At 11 p.m. on the 31st August, 1917, a man in an attempt at suicide threw himself from one of H.M. ships into the sea at Saltash. Albert H. Allen, E.R.A., R.N., jumped in and held him till a boat reached them and they were picked up.’ (R.H.S. Case No. 43741).

Albert Horace Allen was born in Derby on 31 March 1894. A Fitter by occupation, he entered the Royal Navy as an Acting E.R.A.4 on 24 August 1916. He served throughout the war on the destroyer Defender. He continued to serve after the war, being promoted to E.R.A. 1 in August 1925. Sold with copied service papers for Winston and Allen