Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, Royal Navy 1910-1930

Obverse: Bust of King George V in naval uniform, orders and medals (left). Legend: 'GEORGIVS V BRITT : OMN : REX ET IND: IMP:' Reverse: Within a knotted rope straboard broadside view of a ship of the line at anchor. Legend: 'FOR LONG SERVICE AND GOOD CONDUCT'. Inscription on edge: 'M16889 A.P.ROACH S.B.P.O. H.M.S.VICTORY'. Mounted on a bar with two other medals. Suspended from a clasp and dark blue ribbon edged with white.

Albert Percy Roach (1897-1974) from Market Harborough, joined the Royal Navy on 18 November 1915 as a probationary sick berth attendant and spent the war years at Haslar Hospital and in destroyer HMS 'Vampire', based in home waters. In 1926, he went out to Hong Kong in sloop HMS 'Hollyhock', later transferring to 'Cornflower' and returning to the UK in HMS 'Cleopatra', by now a Sick Berth Attendant Petty Officer. In 1933 he served in HMS 'Suffolk', a county-class heavy cruiser, being promoted to Sick Berth Attendant Chief Petty Officer in 1934. The following year, he was invalided out of the Navy with a disease of the joints. In 1939 he was living on his naval pension with his brother Thomas Edwin Roach - a watch repairer and looking after their invalid mother Jane. He died at Hallaton near his place of birth.

Object Details

ID: MED1473
Collection: Coins and medals
Type: Long service award
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Wyon, William; Mackennal, Edgar Bertram McMillan, William
Vessels: Victory Royal Naval Barracks
Date made: 1910
People: Roach, Albert Percy; King George V
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Measurements: Overall: 36 mm