1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star (unnamed as awarded) with award slip and box of issue (last with address label removed)
Patrick Alex Bingham Powell, born 1918, served as a Lieutenant with the Royal Navy and was 24 years old when Killed in Action whilst aboard HMS Vortigern on 15 March 1942. He was the son of Vice Admiral George Bingham Powell.
On 15 March 1942 HMS Vortigern (Lt.Cdr. Ronald Stanley Howlett, RN) was escorting southbound Convoy FS.749 when she was torpedoed and sunk off Cromer on the Norfolk coast by German E-boat S-104. The Convoy continued and although the sinking of Vortigern was observed by the other escort she was unable to stop and it was not until the following morning that the 12 survivors out of the crew of 159 were rescued by the corvette HMS Guillemot.
The loss of life from the sinking of the Vortigern was the highest incurred in the loss of a ship on East Coast Convoys
