A fine Great War Balloonatic’s D.F.C. group of three awarded to 2nd Lieutenant W. F. Dollery, Royal Air Force, late Hampshire Yeomanry and Royal Garrison Artillery
Distinguished Flying Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued, in its John Pinches, London case of issue; British War and Victory Medals (2 Lieut. W. F. Dollery, R.A.F.), good very fine and better (3) £3000-3500

One of approximately 35 Distinguished Flying Crosses awarded to Kite Balloon Officers.

D.F.C. London Gazette 3 December 1918:

‘Throughout the recent operations this officer has set a magnificent example of fearlessness and devotion to duty. On 29 September 1918, when observing from a balloon, he was forced by enemy attack to parachute, but, although he had already been up to five hours, 2nd Lieutenant Dollery, with most praiseworthy keenness, immediately re-ascended and continued to observe until weather conditions made it necessary to haul down the balloon.’

William Frank Dollery, who was born in Ropley, Hampshire, in June 1890, was employed as a Mechanical Engineer by London and South Western Railways from 1907-14. Sometime thereafter enlisting in the Hampshire Yeomanry, he was advanced to Corporal and, in April 1917, was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery. Having then accrued ‘a good working knowledge of artillery work, especially that of heavy guns and howitzers’ (his R.A.F. service record refers), he was an ideal candidate for balloon work, and successfully gained appointment as a Kite Balloon Officer in the newly established Royal Air Force - his subsequent award of his D.F.C. appears to have been for gallant deeds in No. 11 Section, 12th Kite Balloon Company.

Dollery, who was placed on the Unemployed List in April 1919, returned to his pre-war profession as a Mechanical Engineer but died aged just 36 years in Arlesford, Hampshire, in July 1927.

Sold with a group of related prize awards, comprising Hampshire Public Schools Sports, presentation silver belt buckle, the reverse engraved, ‘1905, High Jump, Junior, Won by W. F. Dollery’; London Railways Athletic Association, gold and enamel prize awards (2), for Long Jump and High Jump Championships in 1909; and London City & Guilds Department of Technology, silver prize medal (William Frank Dollery, Rail Carriage Building, 1st Prize, 1918).

Also sold with a quantity of original documentation, comprising the recipient’s commission warrant for 2nd Lieutenant, Royal Garrison Artillery, dated 5 April 1917; three card mounted studio quality photographs from the Great War, two portraits of the recipient in uniform, one as a member of the Hampshire Yeomanry and the other as a Gunner subaltern, together with another of him and two relatives, most probably taken after an investiture; and old copy birth registry, marriage and death certificates.