A Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, GVIR, 1st type bust awarded to Able Seaman J. Linehan, Royal Navy who was awarded the medal on 17th September 1937 when serving aboard H.M.S. Osprey, and who later undertook convoy defence duties aboard H.M.S. Valorous in the early years of WW2.
Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, GVIR, 1st type bust; (J.99038 J. LINEHAN. A.B. H.M.S. OSPREY.)
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine
James Lineham, an errand boy from Chiswick, London, joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on 24 Sept 1920 aged 16. He was awarded his Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal on 17th September 1937 whilst serving at the anti-submarine training establishment established, H.M.S. Osprey, at Portland. Having joined the crew of V Class Flotilla Leader H.M.S. Valorous on 26 Aug 1939, he went on to serve on Convoy defence duties in the North Sea and Northwestern Approaches with Rosyth Force following the outbreak of WW2.
In January 1940 her duties were expanded to include the defence of convoys along the east coast of Great Britain and in the English Channel. She did not take part in the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, remaining on convoy escort duties instead. On 11 June 1940, she was escorting Convoy FN 23 when it came under German air attack and, after a German bomb hit and sank the collier Heworth, rescued Heworth's crew.
In July 1940,Valorous's duties expanded again to include anti-invasion patrols. In 1941, after the threat of invasion had subsided, she returned to her convoy escort focus. On 21 June 1941 the flotilla leader rescued the only three survivors of thetankerVancouver, which had struck anaval mineand caught fire offSunk Head Buoy,Harwich, with the loss of 45 lives while on a voyage fromShell HaventoHalifax,Yorkshire.Valorouswas "adopted" by the civil community ofDewsbury, then in theWest Ridingof Yorkshire, as the result of aWarship WeekNational Savings campaign in October 1941.
Lineham was appointed Acting Petty Officer (temporary) when serving at the Royal Naval Base Rosyth, H.M.S. Cochrane, on 20 Feb 1942, and the advanced to Petty Officer (temporary) on 20 Feb 1943 when back at Osprey. He was pensioned in August 1944.
