ATTRIBUTED ROYAL NAVAL OFFICERS SWORD. Second World War period Royal Navy Officers Sword, steel blade etched with Royal Coat of Arms to one side with a fouled anchor surmounted by an Imperial Crown to the other, gilt brass hilt with crowned fouled anchor, folding rear guard, wire bound shagreen grip with lions head pommel, bullion sword knot, held in brass mounted leather scabbard with two suspension rings, the sword belonged to Lieutenant commander G.D Nutt D.S.C. R.N., Geoffrey Dyson Nutt was born on 3rd July 1916 at Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, he attended Hymers College in the East Riding of Yorkshire, on leaving he obtained his civilian Flying License with Hull Aero Club, he joined the Territorial Army as an officer being granted his commission in 1934, he later went on to join the Royal Navy in the Fleet Air Arm in 1938 and obtained his commission as Sub Lieutenant in 1940, trained as an Observer he served on the Aircraft Carrier HMS Glorious with 812 NAS (Naval Air Squadron), leaving the ship a few weeks before she was sunk with a huge loss in lives to join 767 NAS, a training squadron, he served with 767 Sqn. near Toulon in the South of France where it took on operational duties including a bombing raid on Genoa in Italy, with the fall of France the squadron evacuated to Algeria and was split, one part, including Nutt, going to Malta where it formed 830 NAS based at St. Angelo, the squadron carried out torpedo attacks on Italian merchant shipping and Italian Navy vessels, and bombing raids on port installations in Sicily and Libya, it was during one of these raids that the Swordfish aircraft on which Nutt was the Observer, was shot down at Zwara near Tripoli on 6th May 1941, he was captured, unwounded, along with the pilot Lt. N.K. Campbell, the Air Gunner, P.O. William Gracie Tennant died of wounds, a newspaper article at the time reads in part, '.. his parents have just received a letter from him in which he says his plane came down in the Mediterranean and after swimming and floating for some time he was washed ashore on a rocky part of the coast. He managed to escape without a scratch however, being protected from the rocks by his bulky flying kit. The Pilot was picked up the next morning little the worse, but the Air gunner was dead when found. Lieut. Nutt states that he was kindly treated when found by Italian soldiers..', Nutt was awarded the D.S.C. in the Birthday Honours List, London Gazette 1st July 1941, page 3745, his Prisoner of War Questionnaire filled out after he was liberated shows is POW number as 3292, after capture he was incarcerated at Camp 17, Rezzanello, Italy between 7/41-4/42, Camp 35 at Padula 4/42-7/43, Camp 19 at Bologna 7/43-9/43, Milag (Marine-Internierten Lager- Naval Internment Camp) & Marlag (Marinelager- Naval POW Camp), Marlag (O) Westertimke, Germany 10/43-4/45, Oflag 10c Lubeck 4/45-2/5/45, it also shows he was interrogated for two days at Tripoli after capture and that he made several escape attempts, 'Escaped with a large number of other officers at 0430 9th September 1943 when the Germans took over the camp at Bologna, Italy. The Italians after some hesitation opened a gate at the rear of the camp. I was recaptured in a wood at 1030 the same day.On 26th May 1944 I hid in one of a number of large cupboards which were being transported from my camp in Germany by lorry. Lorry searched at main gate and I was discovered. Two months previously I helped to construct a tunnel which fell in on reaching a trench which had been dug by the Germans around the camp.', after the war Nutt was offered the chance to remain on the active list in the Royal Navy which he accepted, serving on until 1958 with the Communications Branch, he married in 1950 and passed away in 2003.