Now this is very close to my wife’s and my heart, as her late Grandfather served as a Torpedo-man on the Isis (& Zambezi) during WW2, amassing 8 Medals, including the Arctic Star, Atlantic & Burma, some with bars!
However this particular badge is on the large size compared to the bronze badge that we already have displayed with his medals, so here is a…..
Superb Issued Large Solid Bronze Royal Navy HMS Isis Screen Badge d.1942
HMS Isis was one of nine I-class destroyers built for the RN by Yarrow Shipbuilders, Glasgow, commissioned in 1937.
Isis had an extremely busy wartime career initially in the Far East where she escaped Singapore from Dry Dock with no power and was eventually towed to Bombay.
She successfully took part in the evacuation of Greece in April 1941, rescuing the inhabitants at night so not to be detected. Amongst other notable incidents, in February 1943, she and the escort destroyer HMS Hursley and a Vickers Wellington medium bomber attacked and sank the German submarine U-562 in the Mediterranean Sea, north-east of Benghazi and she also witnessed the astonishing explosion of the Barham (which I have photographic footage of).
Sadly, Isis struck a mine and sank on 20 July 1944 in Channel 'T' off the western sector of the Normandy landing beaches and was the last interwar standard destroyer lost in the war, with eleven officers and 143 ratings lost
This heavy solid bronze 16” x 10” screen badge is mounted on japanned mahogany crest that measures 2ft x 18”, it was presented in March 1942 by the Admiralty to Edmonton, Middlesex to commemorate the adoption of the ship and has a brass provenance cartouche engraved with this information.
Incredible piece of Naval history!
£1995
Local delivery, U.K & international shipping available with collections welcome too
