A GROUP of medals given to a brave submariner on a Barrow-built boat is expected to sell for up to £1,400 in an auction later this month.

The seven medals awarded to Ronald Fentiman are included in a specialist London auction by Dix Noonan Webb on September 25 and 26.

Leading Seaman Fentiman’s medals, including the Distinguished Service Medal for brave conduct on the Pacific, are expected to sell between £1,000 and £1,400.

The official citation in the London Gazette on November 20 in 1945 noted that he had shown gallantry, skill and outstanding devotion to duty whilst serving on HMS Taciturn.

It recorded that he had been involved: “In numerous successful patrols in trying climatic conditions in the Pacific, frequently carried out in shallow and difficult waters and in the presence of strong opposition.”

Taciturn was built by Vickers Armstrong and commissioned into Royal Navy service on October  8 in 1944.

The boat had a crew of 59 and was commanded by Lieutenant Edward Talbot Stanley.

From May 13 in 1945, Taciturn was ordered to patrol in the Java and South China Seas.

On May 29 it fired three torpedoes at a Japanese “submarine chaser” off the North coast of Java and was attacked with depth charges and suffered minor damage.

On June 16 Taciturn sank a Japanese air warning picket hulk and the following day sank a schooner north of Surabaya, Java.