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Auction: 20003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 506

The mounted group of seven miniature dress medals worn by Captain A. D. Lenox-Conyngham, Royal Navy, who commanded H.M.S. Jamaica during the Suez operations, covering the landings at Port Said during Operation Musketeer

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Near East; Coronation 1953, mounted as worn, very fine, with related miniature riband bar (7)

Alwyn Douglas Lenox-Conyngham was born in Edinburgh in 1907, the youngest of four children of the Reverend George Lenox-Conyngham and his wife Barbara. His mother and two elder siblings were passengers in the R.M.S. Titanic’s maiden voyage from Southampton, but wisely decided to disembark at Cherbourg. Lenox-Conyngham entered the Royal Navy as a Cadet at Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth in May 1921. He passed out as a Midshipman in September 1925 and completed the Long (S) course at H.M.S. Victory as a Lieutenant in 1932. Promoted Lieutenant Commander on 1 October 1937, at the outbreak of the Second World War he was just finishing the Royal Navy Staff Course. Appointed W/T Officer on the Staff of Admiral Sir Wilfred French, Officer Commanding Orkneys and Shetland, he would have been on the Admiral’s Staff when he was forced to retire when blamed for allowing U-47 to penetrate the Scapa Flow defences and sink H.M.S. Royal Oak on 14 October 1939. Towards the end of 1940, Lenox-Conyngham was appointed to the Staff of Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, serving in H.M.S. Warspite from November 1940 and H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth in 1942. Returning to the UK in January 1943, he was appointed to the Ferret Royal Navy base in Londonderry at the end of that month. Promoted Commander on 31 December 1943, he spent the rest of the War at the Admiralty Signal Establishment. Promoted Captain on 31 December 1948, he was appointed to the Command of H.M.S. Mermaid in 1952 and as Director of the Signal Division of the Admiralty in September 1953. His final seagoing appointment was to the command of H.M.S. Jamaica on 8 March 1956. Assigned to 1st Cruiser Squadron, Jamaica played a leading role in the Suez operations later that year and was part of the force that covered the landings at Port Said during Operation Musketeer. Captain Lenox-Conyngham retired from the Royal Navy on 7 January 1958 and died in 1990.

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Sold for
£60

Starting price
£40