For sale is a Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal (G.VI.R.) impressed named PLY 22051 D.H. WATTS. MNE. R.M. which comes with copy service records.
David Henry Watts was born on 7/2/1924 in Aberdare, Glamorgan, Wales. A labourer in a forage store he enlisted into the Royal Marines on 7/2/1924. He served until medically discharged on 4/7/1942 as no longer physically fit for R.M. Service.
During WW2 he served on H.M.S. Valiant (Queen Elizabeth-class battleship) from 28/11/1939 – 17/6/1942. He had an eventful war as the Valiant initially escorted Canadian troops across the Atlantic prior to joining the Home Fleet on 7/1/1940. She was engaged in escort duty for troop transports and in May 1940 supported the British landing forces in the Norwegian campaign and was narrowly missed by a torpedo fired by U 38.
When the French surrendered on 22/6/1940 the bulk of the French fleet lay at Mers-el-Kébir. On Wednesday, 3/7/1940, Force H consisting of the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, the battlecruiser Hood, the battleships Valiant, Resolution, and Nelson, cruisers and destroyers deployed to the harbor entrance. When the Vichy French refused to surrender the Valiant, Hood and Resolution opened fire. The Dunkerque, the Provence, and the Brittany were hit and heavily damaged; the latter exploded and sank. In September, she was based at Alexandria and for the remainder of the year, she sailed security duties in the Mediterranean, primarily on fleet advances. On the night of 18–19 December, together with the Warspite, she shelled the Albanian port of Valona.
She was at the Battle of Cape Matapan where the British opened fire at point-blank range and sank the heavy cruisers Zara and Fiume. During the battle, Midshipman Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh served on Valiant and controlled the battleship's searchlights. She was hit by two bombs on 22-23/5/1941 during the Battle of Crete.
On 19/12/1941 she survived the famous Italian Decima Flottiglia MAS frogmen attack in Alexandria Harbour on her and the Queen Elizabeth battleship. The Italians rode their two-man "human torpedoes" into the harbour and successfully evaded the defences to mine the hulls of both battleships, seriously damaging both.
The war finished for him in July 1942 when discharged medically unfit, he died in 1973 in Pontypridd, Glamorgan, Wales. He was awarded his LS a& GC Medal on 7/2/1939 with gratuity.
