GALLANTRY AWARDS TO NAVAL MEN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22940, 7 May 1949, Page 5

GALLANTRY AWARDS TO NAVAL MEN

(11 a.m.) LONDON, May 6. Admiralty awards are announced in the London Gazette to members of the crew of the Amethyst as follows:

Bar to Distinguished Service Cross.— Lieutenant Geoffrey Lee Weston, D.S.C., for gallantry and outstanding devotion to duty when the Amethyst was fired on in the Yangtse in continuing to exercise command, although dangerously wounded after the commanding officer had died of wounds.

Distinguished Service Medal—Telegraphist Jack Leonard French, for outstanding devotion to duty on carrying on single-handed the sending and receiving of vital wireless messages. Posthumous Mention in Despatches.— Lieutenant Commander Bernard Morland Skinner for the utmost gallantry and devotion to duty in command of the Amethyst until he succumbed to wounds.

This is the highest posthumous recognition exceptthe V.C. or the George Cross.

The Gazette states that a copy of the awards is being wirelessed to the Amethyst and it is thought that Telegraphist French, who is still on the vessel, would probably take down the Morse message of his own award. A message from Hong Kong reports the death-roll of British sailors in the Yangtse shelling incident rose to 44 today when the death in Hong Kong Naval Hospital was reported of a lieutenant and a marine of the cruiser London. The London’s casualties are now 15 killed and 13 wounded.