An impressive B.E.M. group of ten awarded to Lieutenant-Commander J. G. Norfolk, Royal Naval Reserve, late Royal Navy

British Empire Medal, (Military) G.VI.R., 1st issue (S.C.P.O. James G. Norfolk, C/MX. 52737), with its card box of issue; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals; Korea 1950-53 (C.S.O. J. G. Norfolk, R.N.); U.N. Korea 1950-54; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 2nd issue (J. G. Norfolk, B.E.M., S.C.P.O. (V.), H.M.S. Triumph); Royal Naval Reserve Officer’s Decoration, E.II.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1977’, mounted court-style as worn, together with a set of related miniature dress medals, the L.S. & G.C. with one or two minor official corrections, contact marks an occasional edge bruise, otherwise very fine and better (20) £600-700

B.E.M. London Gazette 1 January 1946.

James George Norfolk was born in Southwark, London in August 1916 and entered the Royal Navy as Supply Probationer in May 1936. A Leading Supply Probationer serving in the cruiser H.M.S. York on the renewal of hostilities, he served off Norway and in a number of Mediterranean operations until his ship was disabled in an Italian explosive motorboat attack in Suda Bay on 22 May 1941. Thereafter, until August 1946, Norfolk served as a Stores Petty Officer at the Alexandria base Nile, services that resulted in his award of the B.E.M.

Appointed to the acting rank of Commissioned Stores Officer in May 1951, while serving in the aircraft carrier Triumph off Korea, he removed to another vessel employed in those waters - the ferry carrier Unicorn - before the Wars end, and was confirmed in his commissioned rank in March 1954. On leaving regular R.N. employment, Norfolk obtained a post in the Severn Division of the Royal Naval Reserve, in which capacity he was advanced to Lieutenant-Commander in December 1970 and awarded the R.N.R. Decoration in 1977.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s Buckingham Palace forwarding letter for the B.E.M.; his rating’s Certificate of Service and Naval Pay and Identity Book; his commission warrants for Commissioned Stores Officer, dated 17 March 1954 and for Lieutenant-Commander, R.N.R., dated 1 December 1970; a quantity of ship’s “flimsies” (12), covering the period 1952-66, and assorted invitations (12), for the period 1973-80; several career photographs, including four card mounted images, one of them of those who attended the ‘Supply Probationers’ Technical Course, R.N.B., August-October 1936’; together with an Order of the British Empire Diamond Jubilee (1917-1977) commemorative plate, by Aynsley, with related certificate, and two evening dress shirts, the whole contained in an old green canvas suitcase bearing the recipient’s initials.