Seven: Acting Petty Officer J. A. Keyser, South African Naval Forces

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Burma Star; War Medal 1939-45, M.I.D. oak leaf; Africa Service Medal; Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Long Service, G.VI.R. (No. 66735 A./P./O., S.A.N.F. (V.)), all the 1939-45 War awards officially impressed ‘66735 J. A. Keyser’, generally good very fine, the Burma Star very rare to a South African recipient (7) £100-120

James Abraham Keyser, who was born in July 1915 and by profession a Bus Driver, enlisted in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (South African Division) in July 1933. A Leading Seaman by the outbreak of hostilities, he was seconded for service with the South African Naval Forces (V.), and drafted to the S.S. City of Cape Town in December 1940. Indeed all of his subsequent appointments would appear to have been in Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships (D.E.M.S.), among them the Reunion, Marnice, Gnu, Kongoni, Stratheden, City of London and Grafton Park, some of these while attached to the Royal Navy.

On 30 April 1942, while serving as an Acting Petty Officer in H.M.T. K5, Keyser rescued two soldiers who fell overboard from their ship, which was part of a convoy at anchor - it was dark, with the sea running a dangerous current. His bravery was subsequently recognised by a testimonial from the Royal Humane Society:

‘Keyser detailed a sentry on the K5 to lower lifebuoys, then dived overboard and swam against the current to the buoys which he took to the two soldiers. He then guided them to a ship astern where they clung to the anchor chain until picked up.’

Keyser was finally discharged from the S.A.N.F. (V.) back at Cape Town in September 1945, his entitlement to the Burma Star being confirmed by official records but his M.I.D. remains unverified.