Lieutenant-Colonel F. H. Cleaver, C.B.E., D.S.O., Royal Air Force, late Royal Flying Corps

A Sterling silver cigar box, 8" x 5.25" x 2.75". Maker's mark for Asprey & Co, hall marks for London 1917. Unblemished condition. Engraved upon the lid, centrally within a cartouche ‘Lt Col F H Cleaver, DSO, RAF, from his officers of 3rd Balloon Wing, B.E.F, France’

Then, above the cartouche, is the finely engraved image of an observation balloon which is in flames. Beyond that is the enemy aircraft which has just attacked it. A small figure can be seen jumping from the basket, with another (lower) figure descending beneath a parachute.

Surrounding the cartouche and burning balloon image are the engraved facsimile signatures of the forty-two officers who subscribed. The majority are legible and identifiable, but yet to be researched.

On the front face of the box is engraved Come back and, within the lid, Still on top. The vendor believes the occasion to have been Colonel Cleaver's departure from 3rd Balloon Wing in mid-1918. £800-1000

Frederick Holden Cleaver was already nearly forty years of age when, on 12 August 1914, he volunteered for service "with any cavalry regiment". His only previous military service had been with Roberts’ Horse and Kitchener's Horse during the Boer War.

His active service in South Africa had ended with a heavy fall which damaged a hip. The consequence was a lifetime of pain and one leg four inches shorter than the other. Undaunted, he succeeded in obtaining a commission and joined the 20th Hussars in the trenches near Ypres on 21 November 1914. Four weeks later he was shot through the shoulder. A medical board assessed him as unfit for further service but, anticipating that report, Cleaver had invoked the support of friends in high places. A letter from the King's Assistant Private Secretary, addressed to General William Brancker of the Directorate of Aeronautics, stated, ‘My dear Brancker, the bearer of this letter, Cleaver, was with my Squadron in South Africa. He knows no fear ... I helped him to get to the front with a cavalry regiment and he has returned wounded. He is very lame and not fit for fast warfare. He now wants to become an Observer in anything you can give him.’

This brought a War Office response (referring to service with balloons), ‘He is the stamp of man we want for the work and the fact that he has one leg four inches shorter than the other would not be a disqualification from our point of view as his duties on the ground would be few.’

Frederick Cleaver duly attended a balloon operating course and received the R.A.C. Aeronauts Certificate (No. 45). He returned to France and commenced active service in the air as a balloon operator. He appears in the Orders of Battle for 1st July (the Somme) as "Major, Officer Commanding No. 4 Kite Balloon Squadron", and for 9 April 1917 (Arras) as "Lieutenant Colonel, Commanding No. 3 Balloon Wing". He was admitted to the D.S.O. on 1 January 1917 and appointed C.B.E. in 1919 (when commanding "the RAF Cadet School"). He died in Weeke, Hampshire, on 29 November 1944, age 69. According to a family source, his medals and diaries were then thrown away. The cigar box was retained "because it was silver and interesting".

Based upon his bulky file at The National Archives (T.N.A.) (ref. WO 339/1104), his story was told in Medal News (June/July 2004).