Orders, Decorations and Medals

Pair: 2nd Lieutenant C. Halse, General List and Royal Flying Corps, who was shot down in flames by “Blue Max” holder Fritz Bernert in April 1917

British War and Victory Medals (2 Lieut.), very fine or better (2) £250-300

Clive (Harold) Halse, who was born in Queenstown, South Africa in November 1892 and educated at Kingswood and Selborne Colleges, enlisted as a Trooper in Cullinan’s Horse in November 1914. Discharged in April 1915, he was embarked for the U.K. where he joined the Royal Flying Corps that July. Sometime thereafter attached to No. 26 (South African) Squadron as an Air Mechanic, he fractured his right arm while starting an aircraft engine at Netheravon in November 1915.

He had, meanwhile, been appointed a Cadet for pilot training, and duly gained his “Wings” at Oxford in July 1916, following which he was posted to No. 70 Squadron, a Sopwith Strutter unit operating out of Fienvilliers in early 1917. Tragically, however, he was shot down in flames over Vaucelles during a reconnaissance flight to Cambrai on 24 April, his fate being witnessed by a fellow squadron officer, 2nd Lieutenant N. C. Seward. Modern references further confirm that he was one of five victims claimed in a single action that day, the whole by Oberleutnant Fritz Bernert of Jasta 2 - a record. Bernert, who the previous day had been awarded the Pour Le Merite and eventually scored 28 “kills”, died of influenza in October 1918.

Halse was interred in Honnechy British Military Cemetery; his MIC entry confirms his entitlement to the British War and Victory Medals, both of which were despatched to his next of kin in August 1922, but South African records have not been checked for his possible entitlement to the 1914-15 Star.