Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Marine A. Brown, Royal Marine Light Infantry, who was killed in action when H.M.S. Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy, was sunk by the German battleship Bismark and the battle cruiser Prinz Eugen in the Denmark Strait on 24 May 1941; of the Hood’s 1,418 crew, only three men survived

British War Medal 1914-20 (Po.20967. Pte. A. Brown. R.M.L.I.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939-45; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (Po.21742 A. Brown. Mne. R.M.) the BWM polished, this very fine; the rest nearly extremely fine (5) £400-£500

Arthur Brown was born in Gosport, Hampshire, on 25 July 1901 and enlisted there in the Royal Marine Light Infantry on 20 August 1918, serving for the last few months of the Great War at the Recruit Depot, Deal. Posted to the Portsmouth Division, he was discharged on reduction of the service on 10 June 1922, before re-enlisting the following year on 3 February 1923, and was awarded his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal on 3 February 1938. He served aboard the battle cruiser H.M.S. Hood from 12 May 1931 to 30 August 1933, and again from 28 May 1937, and was killed in action during the Battle of the Denmark Strait, when the Hood - together with the battleship H.M.S. Prince of Wales - fought the German battleship Bismark and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, both of which were attempting to break out into the North Atlantic to destroy Allied merchant shipping. The Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy, opened fire at 5:52 a.m. on 24 May 1941, and having received a direct hit from the Bismark at 6:00 a.m. sank beneath the waves within three minutes, after a total combat lifespan of less than quarter of an hour. Of the 1,418 Officers and crew on board, only three men, Ordinary Seaman Ted Briggs, Able Seaman Robert Tilburn, and Midshipman William Dundas survived. Brown is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

Sold with copied record of service and other research.