Donald Tudor “Ox; also recorded as Donald T.” Coventry

Sergeant · #RH6857923 / SR598905 · S (inferred) · DCM

What this roll records

THE DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT MEDAL FOUND. London Gazette, 12 September 1944, Supplement 36699, page 4249, under the heading “The Distinguished Conduct Medal.”: “No. 6857923 Sergeant Donald Tudor Coventry, The King’s Royal Rifle Corps.” It stands against 6857923, the alternate number from O’Carroll’s Rhodesia roll rather than the primary S.R. number on this card, and searching the name in full returns the same single notice and nothing else. It gives his forenames in full, names his regiment as THE KING’S ROYAL RIFLE CORPS where this card named none, and confirms and dates the D.C.M. It also corroborates the Rhodesian Services Association account above, which has him winning the D.C.M. on Leros: Leros fell in November 1943 and this gazetting is ten months later, the ordinary interval. It says nothing about the patrol question, which stands as recorded. Source: The London Gazette.

Patrol S (S1/S2) INFERRED from Rhodesian/South African service number (SR/RH prefix) - the LRDG Rhodesian & S.African squadron formed S Patrol. Specific S1/S2 not individually confirmed.

Additional service number(s) from Rhodesia roll: SR598905. Source: Rhodesia Nominal Roll (Brendan O’Carroll).

Deeper background (2026): a Rhodesian Services Association newsletter names “Sergeant Don ‘Ox’ Coventry” as an N.C.O. of Z1 Patrol under Captain John Olivey, records that he won his D.C.M. on Leros, and adds that he had earlier been captured and escaped. Source: Rhodesian Services Association, sitrep January 2010, https://rhodesianservices.org/user/image/publication01-2010.pdf. NOTE THE CONFLICT: this places him in Z1 Patrol, where the patrol recorded here, S, is an inference. The newsletter gives no service number, so the identification rests on the name, the D.C.M. and the Rhodesian connection rather than on a number.

SERVICE NUMBER FIELD REPAIRED (2026). It read “#SR59890 ~ RH6857923* / SR598905” — two numbers joined by a tilde, with a third fragment in front. THE FRAGMENT WAS NOT A SEPARATE NUMBER: “SR59890” is SR598905 with its last digit lost, and SR598905 already appeared as the second element of the same field. His RH number is confirmed by the Gazette citation already on this card — “No. 6857923 Sergeant Donald Tudor Coventry, The King’s Royal Rifle Corps”, Distinguished Conduct Medal, London Gazette 12 September 1944, Supplement 36699, p. 4249 — and SR598905 is the number the Rhodesia Nominal Roll gives him, as the note above records. The field now holds those two, both sourced.

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Where this comes from

• AKA added from the LRDG Preservation Society’s Troopers roll (missing information).

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Not By Strength But By Guile