A rare Great War D.S.M. group of four awarded to 2nd Lieutenant C. H. Potts, Royal Air Force, late Royal Naval Air Service

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (M. 1008 C. H. Potts, C.P.O. Mech., R.N.A.S. Dover Patrol 1916-7); 1914-15 Star (M. 1008 C.P.O. 1, R.N.A.S.); British War and Victory Medals (2 Lieut., R.A.F.), the first with officially re-impressed naming, good very fine (4) £1500-1700

D.S.M. London Gazette 12 May 1917. The recommendation states:
‘A conspicuous and reliable Chief Petty Officer. He has invented and produced an automatic carburettor which has been fitted to all Clergent engines in the Dunkirk Command.’

Charles Harold Potts was born in Cambridge in March 1888 and entered the Royal Navy as an Acting Electrician 4th Class in May 1909. He subsequently served in H.M.S. Hermes in 1913, in which year Commander C. R. Samson tested a new aeroplane fitted with folding wings, which was launched from a special platform built over the bows of that ship, and by the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914 he had attained the rank of Chief Petty Officer Mechanic in the fledgling Royal Naval Air Service.

Entering the French theatre of war in June 1915, he was decorated for the above cited achievements at Dunkirk, and was advanced to Warrant Officer in July 1917. He went on to serve in No. 5 Squadron, 5 Wing, R.N.A.S., which unit was operating out of Condekerque on day bombing duties in D.H. 4s, a unit which was subsequently designated No. 205 Squadron on the formation of the Royal Air Force in April 1918 - see Bomber Pilot 1916-1918, by Squadron Leader C. P. O. Bartlett, D.S.C., for full details of No. 5’s operations and several references to Potts. The latter returned to the U.K. that July as a newly commissioned 2nd Lieutenant and was finally placed on the Retired List in 1930. He is believed to have died in Wandsworth, London in late 1968.