A fine post-War C.B. and Second War O.B.E. group of eleven awarded to Rear-Admiral R. E. Por...

A fine post-War C.B. and Second War O.B.E. group of eleven awarded to Rear-Admiral R. E. Portlock, Royal Navy, a torpedo specialist who was Director of Underwater Weapons at the Admiralty 1956-58 The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, C.B. (Military) neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels; The Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military); Naval General Service 1915-62, 2 clasps, Palestine 1936-39, Minesweeping 1945-51 (Lieut. R. E. Portlock R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Coronation 1953, Sweden, Order of the Sword, Officer’s breast badge, silver-gilt and enamels, all but the last ten mounted as worn, the campaign stars gilded, otherwise generally good very fine (11) £1,800-£2,200 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- C.B. (Military) London Gazette 31 December 1960: Rear-Admiral, Chief of Staff to C-in-C Far East. O.B.E. (Military) London Gazette 12 June 1947: Commander, H.M.S. Lioness, minesweeping operations in the East Indies. Sweden, Order of the Sword: For services as Chief of Staff to C-in-C Nore, for the state visit of the King and Queen of Sweden in June 1954. Ronald Etridge Portlock was born in 1908, attended Dartmouth Naval College 1922-25, and joined the battle cruiser H.M.S. Hood as a Midshipman in May 1926. His sea service from 1926-38 was spent in Home Waters and the Mediterranean, including service in Palestinian waters, and from 1938-39 he was in charge of a section of the Torpedo Experimental Department of H.M.S. Vernon, this post marking the start of his specialisation with underwater weaponry. He was appointed as Torpedo Officer to the Ark Royal when war broke out, and served in her until she was sunk on 14 November 1942. During this period Ark Royal and her aircraft had a most active time, not least when her Swordfish attacked the Bismarck in May 1941, damaging her steering gear and thus bringing about the subsequent destruction of this infamous pocket battleship. Portlock’s mines and torpedoes in all of Ark Royal’s actions, particularly the Bismarck action, were of great significance. On 13 November 1941, Ark Royal was torpedoed by a U-boat near Gibraltar and sank with the loss of only one man. After his survivor’s leave Portlock was assigned to H.M.S. King George V, where he stayed until 1942 when he was made second-in-command of an East African Naval Air Station. In 1943 he returned home and remained on the Staff at the Admiralty until 1946 when he was placed in command of the 10th and 11th Minesweeping Flotillas in the Far East. His peacetime appointments were mostly connected with underwater weapons but in 1955-56 he commanded H.M.S. Newfoundland. In 1956 he became Director of Underwater Weapons at the Admiralty and held this post for two years. He was promoted to Rear-Admiral in 1959 and posted to Singapore as Chief of Staff and Deputy to the C-in-C Far East. He retired from the Service when this tour was completed in 1961 and was created C.B. the same year. The group is accompanied by a large quantity of good original documentation, including the recipient’s Midshipman’s Journal for the period May 1926 to July 1928, mostly aboard the Hood, containing a detailed log of events and well illustrated with maps, charts and technical drawings; Warrants of Appointment for C.B. and O.B.E., together with various covering letters and the Statutes of the Bath; Sub-Lieutenant’s Commission certificate; letter granting permission to wear the Order of the Sword, granted in 1954; Official Certificate of Commendation from C-in-C Nore for Portlock’s services in the Flood Relief Operations on the East Coast in February 1953; and various other certificates of competence and appointment, newspaper cuttings, a visitors’ book (H.M. Underwater Detection Establishment, Portland, Dorset from May 1950 through to his various appointments in the Far East and up until April 1961), and copies of a lecture entitled “Underwater Warfare of the Future”.