British War Medal (J.84444 K.M. LONG. BOY.1 R.N.); Victory Medal (J.84444 K.M. LONG. BOY.1 R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic star; Africa Star; Burma Star; Defence Medal; Navy Long Service & Good Conduct Medal GVR (J.84444 K.M. LONG. L.S. H.M.S. VICTORY.) - with box of issue iro WWII medals addressed to Mr K.M. Long, 77 Carlisle Road, Southsea, Hants.
Keith Montague Long was born in Hampreston, Dorset on Christmas Day 1901. He joined the Royal Navy as a Boy on 4 February 1918 and did his basic training and gunnery at HMS Impregnable. He was drafted to HMS Vindictive on 2 October 1918 - five weeks before the end of the war.
Deciding to make the Navy his career he continued on in the service specialising in gunnery and passing the exams needed to qualify him as a Gun Layer and Direction Layer. He was awarded the LSGCM on 3 April 1935.
With the outbreak of WWII he was a Petty Officer (Director Layer) serving aboard HMS Resource. Resource was deployed to Malta to support ships in the Mediterranean - she was to remain there until 1944 - both at Malta and at Alexandria in Egypt (she was for a short while at Freetown).
On 7 April 1941 he was promoted to Chief Petty Officer and, although pensioned on 24 December 1941, continued to serve. His time on Resource ended on 21 February 1942 whereafter he was posted to HMS Victory at Portsmouth. On 17 August 1942 he was drafted to HMS Rotherham and deployed to the Indian Ocean on convoy escort duty. This was to be his last ocean-going deployment. On 2 September 1944 he left Rotherham for a brief posting to HMS Lanka (Ceylon) before returning to the UK on 20 September 1944.
His final retirement came on 7 December 1945. He retired to Portsmouth and died there in March 1986.
Medals are in good condition unless indicated otherwise. Sold with some research including several original Certificate of Service parchments, Gunnery history sheet and a copied photo of him and, presumably, his wife.
