Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part II)

Five: Leading Seaman H. V. F. Moore, Royal Navy, who was taken P.O.W. following the loss of H.M.S. Ivanhoe: he subsequently escaped in August 1941 but was recaptured at Bromberg before he could board a neutral ship bound for Danzig - and was promptly awarded 14 days in the “cooler”

Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-1939 (C. JX. 126927 A.B., R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939-45; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (JX. 126927 A.B., H.M.S. Pembroke), generally good very fine (5) £300-350

Herbery Francis Victor Moore, a native of Southend-on-Sea, Essex, was born in July 1910 and entered the Royal Navy in May 1926.

As verified by recently released P.O.W. files in the National Archive, he was taken prisoner following the loss of the destroyer H.M.S. Ivanhoe when she was mined in the North Sea in September 1940 - she went down with the loss of one officer and 30 ratings. Interestingly, the Ivanhoe had been present in the Palestine operations of the late 1930s, so it is ilkely that Moore was a member of her ship’s company from the outbreak of hostilities. If so, he would have seen action off Norway and Dunkirk, in which latter operations she was badly damaged by enemy aircraft.

Interned at Stalag XXA at Thorn, Poland (September 1940 until December 1942) and Marlag und Milag Nord at Tamstedt (December 1942 until April 1945), Moore confirmed in the course of his “debrief” on repatriation that he managed to escape from captivity at Thorn in August 1941 and make his way to Bromberg, ‘with intent to get to Danzig’. He was , however, after 12 days on the run, ‘Apprehended by German Civil Police during darkness - received 14 days cell. Physically fit’; the front page of his P.O.W. debrief papers credit him, erroneously, with an M.V.O. and D.S.M.