A Near Mint British Royal Naval Offcer's Sword King George VIth Hilt and Mounts With The Upgraded Wilkinson Sword 1952-53 Deluxe Elizabeth IInd Coronation Blade, Of Mirror Bright & Frosted Polish. With Original Geo VIth Sword Knot

Made and used in WW2, and upgraded by Wilkinson sword for the new Queen, Her Late Beloved Majesty Queen Elizabeth IInd, in 1952-53, and it is still perfectly serviceable for current service for the Royal Navy of HM King Charles. Named hilt for R. Shelley RN. also with its leather service transit storage badge monogrammed R.S.

Just returned from 15 hours of professional hand cleaning, polishing, and conservation to return to how it looked 70 years ago. The results have proved to be worth every minute and penny expended.

Near mint gilt hilt bearing the King's crown, with original gilt wire binding over shark's skin grip, with a deluxe fully etched blade with King George VIth's crown surmounted traditional fouled anchor, and Queen Elizabeth's crown and cypher on the opposite side of the blade. The hilt is now the current service cypher for H.M.King Charles IIIrd.

The original Royal Naval officer's pattern sword was designed in 1805, and although most elegant in design it proved somewhat impractical and was replaced in 1827 by the more robust solid hilt variant.
In 1846 the Royal Naval blade was standardised for all Royal Naval officers, with the current lighter, straight single-edged blade being commissioned into service in 1929.

During World War I, the Royal Navy's strength was mostly deployed at home in the Grand Fleet, confronting the German High Seas Fleet across the North Sea. Several inconclusive clashes took place between them, chiefly the Battle of Jutland in 1916. The British fighting advantage proved insurmountable, leading the High Seas Fleet to abandon any attempt to challenge British dominance. The Royal Navy played an important role in securing the British Isles and the English Channel, notably ferrying the entire British Expeditionary Force to the Western Front without the loss of a single life at the beginning of the war.
The Royal Navy nevertheless remained active in other theatres, most notably in the Mediterranean Sea, where they waged the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns in 1914 and 1915. British cruisers hunted down German commerce raiders across the world's oceans in 1914 and 1915, including the battles of Coronel, Falklands Islands, Cocos, and Rufiji Delta, among others

At the start of World War II in 1939, the Royal Navy was still the largest in the world, with over 1,400 vessels. The Royal Navy provided critical cover during Operation Dynamo, the British evacuations from Dunkirk, and as the ultimate deterrent to a German invasion of Britain during the following four months. The Luftwaffe under Hermann Göring attempted to gain air supremacy over southern England in the Battle of Britain in order to neutralise the Home Fleet, but faced stiff resistance from the Royal Air Force. The Luftwaffe bombing offensive during the Kanalkampf phase of the battle targeted naval convoys and bases in order to lure large concentrations of RAF fighters into attrition warfare. At Taranto, Admiral Cunningham commanded a fleet that launched the first all-aircraft naval attack in history. The Royal Navy suffered heavy losses in the first two years of the war. Over 3,000 people were lost when the converted troopship Lancastria was sunk in June 1940, the greatest maritime disaster in Britain's history. The Navy's most critical struggle was the Battle of the Atlantic defending Britain's vital North American commercial supply lines against U-boat attack. A traditional convoy system was instituted from the start of the war, but German submarine tactics, based on group attacks by "wolf-packs", were much more effective than in the previous war, and the threat remained serious for well over three years.
Warship Commands listed for Capt Richard Shelley, RN, {promoted Rear-Admiral 1944.}


HMS Erebus Capt. Monitor 11 Nov 1939 3 Feb 1940
HMS Suffolk Capt Heavy cruiser convoy service 23 Jun 1942 7 Feb 1944
Operation EV, convoy operations to and from northern Russia, convoy's PQ 18 and QP 14.
Convoy QP 15.
This convoy departed the Archangelsk on 17 November 1942

Combined convoy WS 30 / KMS 15.
This combined convoy was formed off Oversay on 19 May 1943. The convoy was divided into convoys
WS 30 and KMS 15 at sea on 25 May 1943.

Convoy CM 43.

Convoy US 22.
This convoy departed Fremantle on 30 August 1943.

Convoy US 23.

Code: 25841