Navy LSGC ( Geo VI ) Entitled To LS Bar , Main RN Recruiter At Newcastle

Naval LSGC ( Geo VI ) K60363 M FOY STO HMS GREENWICH

Michael Foy a 19 year old miner from Glasgow enlisted into the Royal Navy in December 1922.

He served in various ships and was serving aboard HMS Sharpshooter from the outbreak of WW2 until February 1941 and aboard HMS Calliope for the rest of the war

Post WW2 he served from 1945 until 1955 as CPO Recruiter at the Newcastle Recruiting Centre . he was invalided from the service in November 1955 after serving 33 years

He received the Long Service bar to his medal in May 1953


HMS Sharpshooter

Sharpshooter was still a member of the 1st Minesweeping Flotilla in September 1939, at the outbreak of the Second World War.

The outbreak of war saw Sharpshooter clearing channels through minefields around Scapa Flow and off Loch Ewe and the Clyde estuary.
At the end of May 1940, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was trapped by German forces at Dunkirk, France and it was decided to launch Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk. Sharpshooter was one of the ships assigned to the evacuation.She made her first evacuation run on the morning of 29 May, landing 69 troops picked up from the Dunkirk beaches at Dover, with a second run made on the morning of the 30 May, picking up 273 troops. Sharpshooter was outbound on another run when at 22:10 hr, she collided with the Dover-bound steamer St Helier. Sharpshooter's bow was badly damaged, and she was towed back to Dover by the tugboat Foremost 22, the journey taking 11 hours. She was under repair at Sheerness dockyard and Leith until September 1940, the opportunity being taken to fit Sharpshooter with equipment for sweeping magnetic mines.

Full service papers available on line

Medal in GVF condition

Code: 51089