Model of an 8 inch naval gun turret : Petty Officer C G Grosvenor, HMS Norfolk

Gunmetal (bronze) model of an 8 inch naval gun turret which swivels on its mounting. The gun is attached to a piece of oval shaped teak.

This model gun turret was one of a number made by the ship's butcher, an embarked Royal Marine and an engine room artificer serving in the British cruiser HMS Norfolk between 1946 and 1949 for certain crew members, including the Admiral, Captain and their staffs. Among the staff members was D/JX144493 Petty Officer Clifford George Grosvenor, who retained his model as a souvenir of his service in the Royal Navy. The Norfolk at this time was the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief East Indies Station and visited Australia on a number of occasions. Clifford Grosvenor was born in 1912 at Longhope, Gloucestershire and entered the Royal Navy in the early 1930s where he specialised in gunnery. His Home Port Division was Devonport and much of his training was undertaken at HMS Vivid (renamed Drake in 1934) and the Royal Naval Barracks there. Grosvenor was also a keen musician and played the cornet in various naval bands. During the Second World War he served in a number of heavy cruisers including HM ships Devonshire and Norfolk and took part in the Atlantic and North Russia convoys, and in the Norway Campaign, where HMS Devonshire evacuated the Norwegian King Haakon VII and his party on June 1940 just before his country fell to the Germans. In 1960 Grosvenor emigrated to Australia together with his wife and children. He died in 2000.