Specimen Naval General Service Medal 1915 - 1962 with clasp 'BOMB & MINE CLEARANCE 1945 - 53'

Naval General Service Medal 1915 - 1962 (ER II) with clasp 'BOMB & MINE CLEARANCE 1945 - 53'. Medal impressed around edge with the word 'SPECIMEN'.

The Naval General Service Medal (1915 - 1962) was instituted in August 1915 to recognise naval service in minor warlike operations which were not being recognised by the award of an individual campaign medal. The medal was never issued without a clasp. The following clasps were authorised: 'Persian Gulf 1909-1914', 'Iraq 1919-1920', 'NW Persia 1919-20' (later withdrawn), 'NW Persia 1920', 'Palestine 1936-1939', 'SE Asia 1945-46', 'Minesweeping 1945-51', 'Palestine 1945-48', 'Bomb and Mine Clearance 1945-53', 'Malaya', 'Yangtze 1949', 'B & M Clearance, Mediterranean', 'Cyprus', 'Near East', 'Arabian Peninsula' and 'Brunei'. The clasp 'Bomb and Mine Clearance 1945-53' was awarded for six months' consecutive service in the disposal of bombs and mines after 3 September 1945 in almost any part of the world. 145 of these clasps were issued, nine of them posthumously. Members of the RAN received 60, mostly for work in the Solomon Islands and New Guinean waters.