A Collection of Awards to Merchant Seamen and D.E.M.S. Gunners

A Second World War B.E.M. awarded to Able Seaman Harold George Rich, Merchant Navy, who was decorated for his gallant deeds on the occasion the tanker Scottish Heather was torpedoed and sunk in December 1942

British Empire Medal, (Civil) G.VI.R., 1st issue (Harold George Rich), good very fine £250-300

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Awards to Merchant Seamen and D.E.M.S. Gunners.

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B.E.M. London Gazette 11 May 1943.

Harold George Rich, who was born in Bristol in September 1913, appears to have commenced his wartime career aboard the tanker Athel Princess in August 1941, followed by appointments in the St. Clears and Empire Lytton in 1942.

In November of the latter year he removed to the tanker Scottish Heather as an Able Seaman, and it was in this capacity that he was awarded his B.E.M., after the ship, laden with 600 tons of Admiralty fuel, was torpedoed in the course of Atlantic convoy ONS. 154 by the U-225 on 27 December 1942 - ‘the explosion was very violent, blowing everything from the upper deck’. Scottish Heather was duly abandoned, but a volunteer crew of ten remained aboard to see if repairs could be effected - among them Rich. The following day the ship was restored to seaworthy condition, and, having picked up her boats, proceeded on her way.

Coming ashore at the end of 1945, Rich appears to have settled in Melbourne, and he never claimed his campaign awards; sold with further details.