Pair: Chief Mechanic E. Gamblin, Royal Air Force, late Royal Naval Air Service

British War Medal 1914-20 (200783 F. Sgt., R.A.F.); Royal Air Force M.S.M., G.V.R. (200783 Ch. Mech., R.A.F.), first in card box of issue, extremely fine (2) £300-350

Ernest Gamblin, who was born at Waltham, Berkshire in February 1888, was a motor mechanic by profession prior to enlisting in the Royal Naval Air Service in November 1914. Rated as an Air Mechanic, he appears to have served with the R.N.A.S. in the eastern Mediterranean from February 1915, including an appointment in Roumania between November 1916 and February 1917. A ‘Petty Officer (M.B.) E.’ at the time of the formation of the Royal Air Force in April 1918, he was re-appointed as a Sergeant Mechanic and served with No. 2 Wing in the Aegean and on Malta until the end of hostilities. Advanced to Chief Mechanic in August 1918, Gamblin was awarded the M.S.M. (London Gazette 1 January 1919) and finally discharged in April 1920 - in common with other R.N.A.S. personnel, he appears to have been entitled to a single British War Medal 1914-20, or certainly according to his service papers.

Sold with a fine contemporary portrait photograph of the recipient in R.N.A.S. uniform and a local newspaper obituary, this latter crediting him with additional service in Russia, and in the Home Guard in the 1939-45 War; worthy of further research for possible attachment to an Armoured Car unit.