Orders, Decorations and Medals

Five: Lieutenant Commander C. C. Swabey, Royal Navy
1939-45 Star; Burma Star, clasp, Pacific; War Medal; Korea 1950-53 (Lieut., R.N.); U.N. Korea, sold with a pair of epaulettes, cap badge and companion miniature dress medals, good very fine (13)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals Relating to the Korean War 1950-53.

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Christopher Carlisle Swabey served in Korea aboard H.M.S. Jamaica which took part in Operation Chromite, the Inch’on Landing, as part of Joint Task Force 7, under Vice-Admiral A. D. Struble, U.S.N., in July 1950. A salvo caught her while she was firing at military vehicles 3,000 yards distant along the coast road, in the area of Cape Imwon-jin, on 8th July. Shell splinters killed or mortally wounded an able seaman and five soldiers among other casualties, the first British servicemen to fall in the war. The soldiers, from the Royal Artillery and 1 Middlesex, had been embarked among others in Hong Kong for the summer cruise, an annual arrangement of inter-service goodwill. When Jamaica was ordered into operations, all volunteered to help with ammunition supply and were engaged in this duty when they were hit.
Promoted to Lt. Commander in October 1955, Swabey was dismissed by sentence of Court Martial, at Malta, on 17 April 1956.