War Medal 1939-45

Awarded to Lieutenant engineer Harold Hazelgrove Swayne RN (1896-1982). Obverse: head of King George VI. Legend: 'GEORGIVS VI D : G : BR : OMN : REX : F : D : INDIAE : IMP'. Reverse: A lion standing (left) on a prostrate dragon, its right paw resting on the latter's head. Inscription above: '1939 1945'. Fitted with a bar and blue ribbon with wide red borders and a narrow central red stripe with white borders.Mounted on a bar with three others.

Harold Hazelgrove Swayne was born in Portsmouth, the son of Chief Boatswain John Crabb Swaine. Harold signed up for twelve years naval service on 4 May 1914. He was initially attached to HMS 'Fisgard' - a Portsmouth base for training engineers and artificers. Swayne served as an Engine Room Artificer during most of the war in pre-dreadnought battleship HMS 'Hindustan', leaving her in February 1918. He then served in destroyer HMS 'Vampire' for the last months of the conflict. In 1928 he was promoted Acting Warrant Engineer and was commissioned on 1 October 1938. His medal group indicates that he continued his naval service during the Second World War but probably in a non-combatant role. He married Gladys May Semmens at Portsmouth in 1919.

Object Details

ID: MED1782
Collection: Coins and medals
Type: War medal
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Metcalfe, Percy; Carter-Preston, Edward
Events: World War II, 1939-1945
Date made: circa 1945
People: Swayne, Harold Hazelgrove
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Measurements: Overall: 36 mm
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