An impressive campaign and long service group awarded to Wing Commander A. H. Gee, Royal Air Force, late Royal Flying Corps

1914 Star, with clasp (1187 2 A.[M.] A. H. Gee, R.F.C.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (1187 S.M. 1 A. H. Gee, R.F.C.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Jubilee 1935, privately inscribed, ‘Warrant Officer A. H. Gee, R.A.F.’; Coronation 1937, privately inscribed, ‘W.O. A. H. Gee, R.A.F.’; Royal Air Force L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., coinage bust (1187 S.M. 1 A. H. Gee, R.A.F.); France, Medaille Militaire; France, Croix de Guerre 1914-1918, mounted court-style as worn, attempted erasure of naming details on the first, and enamel damage to the reverse of the Medaille Militaire, otherwise generally good very fine (12) £400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals to the Coldstream Guards, R.F.C., R.N.A.S. and R.A.F. formed by the late Tom Baugh.

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Arthur Henry Gee was born in April 1894 and enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps in April 1914. Appointed an Air Mechanic 2nd Class, he went out to France in early October 1914 with No. 6 Squadron, in which unit he would have met Captain L. G. Hawker, who in the following year won the V.C. and the D.S.O. for combats in the Squadron’s Bristol Scouts. Subsequently transferred to No. 25 Squadron, equipped with F.E. 2Bs, Gee remained similarly employed until the War’s end, gaining advancement to substantive Sergeant-Major 1st Class (Disciplinarian), and winning a “mention” (London Gazette 15 May 1917 refers), and the French Medaille Militaire (London Gazette 17 August 1918 refers), the recommendation for the latter stating:

‘A most conscientious, reliable and most efficient Warrant Officer. He has been in France since the first landing and has done a tremendous amount of good work for the Corps. While serving with another squadron during the early part of last year, he spent many weeks salving engines and wrecked machines at great risk and was undoubtedly instrumental in effecting a great saving of material for the Service.’

Gee’s Croix de Guerre, however, remains unconfirmed.

Post-war, he was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in April 1932 and advanced to Warrant Officer in the same year, and, in September 1937, while employed at the Equipment Training School at Cranwell, commissioned as a Flying Officer. And he remained actively employed in the Equipment Branch in the 1939-45 War, gaining advancement to Squadron Leader in December 1941 and to the temporary rank of Wing Commander in January 1944. His remarkable career of 36 years duration ended in August 1950, when he was finally placed on the Retired List and allowed to retain the rank of Wing Commander.