359 - A modern pair of campaign medals to an NCO of the Royal Corps of Signals, with a poignant family background. Consisting of: Africa General Service Medal with clasp ‘Kenya’ named to: 22537678 Sigmn. D. Leech R Sigs.

A modern pair of campaign medals to an NCO of the Royal Corps of Signals, with a poignant family background. Consisting of: Africa General Service Medal with clasp ‘Kenya’ named to: 22537678 Sigmn. D. Leech R Sigs. General Service Medal 1918 (EIIR 2nd type) with clasp ‘Arabian Peninsula’ named to: 22537678 Cpl D S Leech R Sigs. David Stowell Leech was born in Birkenhead on 17 May 1935, the son of Harold S Leech and Kathleen Leech (nee Spencer). At the time of the 1939 Register, the family is listed living at 11 Kimberley Road, Wallasy. His father was an insurance agent for the ‘Life & General’ and was also listed as a Mercantile Marine reservist. Harold Stowell Leech, the father of David Stowell Leech, was born in Liscard, Cheshire on 4 November 1904. He served for some years before the Second World War in the Mercantile Marine and by 1939 he had come ashore and was a member of the Mercantile Marine Reserve. Following the outbreak of WW2 he was recalled for seagoing duty in 1939/40 and by December 1940 he was serving as an AB aboard the SS Kavac. On 2 December 1940 the Kavac was part of Convoy HX90, an Eastbound North Atlantic convoy carrying war materials from Halifax Nova Scotia to Liverpool, when it was torpedoed and sunk in the Western Approaches by the German submarine U-101. There were 16 survivors from the complement of 41, the remaining 25, including AB Leech, were lost. He is commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial. For his wartime service Harold Leech would have been eligible for the 1939-1945 Star, the Atlantic Star and the War Medal 1939-45. His son, David Leech, was just 5 years old when his father died. David Leech joined the Royal Corps of Signals in c1953, probably as a National Serviceman, and served in Kenya during the Mau Mau emergency. He would have signed on as a regular soldier (probably on a 7+5 engagement) in c 1955 and later served in the Arabian Peninsula. For his service he received the AGS 1915 with clasp ‘Kenya’ and the GSM 1918 with clasp ‘Arabian Peninsula’. The clasp ‘Arabian Peninsula’ was awarded to personnel who served for 30 days or more in the Aden Colony or protectorate and the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman or the adjacent Gulf States, during the period 1 January 1957 – 30 June 1960. David Leech married Elsie V Towers in Wallasy in April 1965. He died in April 1976 (aged only 41) in Birkenhead. The medals are mounted as worn by the recipient; Good Very Fine (GVF) condition and accompanied by some notes on Convoy HX90, the sinking of the SS Kavac and the death of AB Harold Leech.