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Auction: 24112 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 667

A Second World War Royal Naval Patrol Service 'Minesweeping Operations' D.S.M. awarded to Acting Chief Engineer H. A. Campbell, Royal Naval Reserve, who served aboard the Welsbach

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (LT/X. 6083E.S. H. A. Campbell. A/Ch. Engn. R.N.R.), on its investiture pin, good very fine

D.S.M. London Gazette 13 April 1943:

'For bravery and skill while serving in H.M. Ships ... Welsbach ..., while these ships were employed on the hazardous duties of keeping the seas clear of mines.'

Herbert Arthur Campbell was born at Grimsby on 23 August 1909 the son of Wilfred S. T. Campbell, a photographer who served in the Great War with the Royal Army Service Corps. Campbell had one sister and three brothers. Tragically his brother Skipper Sidney Wilfred Campbell was killed on 27 July 1940 when HM Armed Patrol Trawler Staunton was presumed blown up by a magnetic mine in the Thames Estuary.

On 20 May 1939 he joined the Royal Naval Patrol Service, and it was in this capacity that he won his D.S.M. in respect of his services aboard H.M. Trawler Welsbach, a Strath-class trawler armed with a 3-inch gun and crewed by 18 men operating out of Lowestoft. The Welsbach was employed on hazardous minesweeping operations off the English East Coast.

He was presented with his D.S.M. at Buckingham Palace in May 1943, reported in the Hull Daily Mail and Grimsby Daily Telegraph in May 1943. Campbell was discharged in October 1945 and died at 10 Clark Avenue, Grimsby on 6 April 1986; sold together with the recipient's Certificate of Identity confirming the award of a gratuity of £20 to accompany the award of his D.S.M., MOD letter confirming the Medals awarded during the Second World War and other research contained on a USB.



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Sold for
£850

Starting price
£550