Royal Observer Corps Medal - Observer David George Slyfield
Royal Observer Corps Medal - OBSERVER D. G. SLYFIELD
Together with original letters and badge.
David George Slyfield was born on 11 April 1915 in Dovercourt, Essex, the son of George Slyfield and Ellen Edith Slyfield. He was baptised the following month at St Nicholas’ Church, Harwich, on 23 May 1915, and by the time of the 1921 Census he was living with his family at 37 Hawthorn Terrace, Dovercourt. By 1939 he was married and working as an Insurance Agent, residing at 91 — , Ipswich, Suffolk, as listed in the 1939 National Register, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. He had married Emily Grace Large in July 1939 at Harwich, Essex, beginning a long marriage that would last until her death in 2000.
At some point during or shortly after the war years, Slyfield became a member of the Royal Observer Corps, the United Kingdom’s civilian uniformed organisation responsible for aircraft tracking and later nuclear warning duties. He served within No. 4 Group (Colchester), which was part of the national ROC structure reporting to RAF Strike Command. His home address during this period was 50 Chelsworth Avenue, Ipswich, Suffolk, the address recorded throughout his ROC correspondence.
By 1963, Slyfield had completed 12 years of service in the Corps and qualified for the Royal Observer Corps Medal, awarded for ten years’ efficient service, with further clasps given for subsequent periods. His medal was dispatched to him by registered post from “Errington Lodge”, 22 Lexden Road, Colchester, the headquarters of No. 4 Group, ROC. A letter dated 8 August 1963, signed by the Group Commandant, congratulated him on completing his qualifying service and expressed the hope that he would “qualify for the bar to this medal”. The medal was sent to him in its original box, addressed to “Observer D. G. Slyfield”, with the official ROC registered envelope also surviving, marked “On Her Majesty’s Service”, complete with the red wax seal and Colchester registry label No. 2234. The presence of both letter and envelope confirms that Slyfield did not attend the scheduled group presentation, and that the medal was instead issued to him directly by post.
Slyfield continued to reside in Ipswich, where he remained for the rest of his life. He died there on 9 July 1973, aged 58, and his estate was settled later that year with probate granted at Ipswich on 11 October 1973. His widow, Emily Grace Slyfield (née Large), outlived him by almost three decades, passing away in 2000.
The survival of Slyfield’s medal, award letter, envelope, and named box provides a rare and complete documented grouping from the early period of the Royal Observer Corps Medal, illustrating both his long service and the formal manner in which such awards were dispatched through the ROC command system.
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