Orders, Decorations and Medals

A well-documented and important Second World War C.B.E., Great War Royal Naval Division Antwerp 1914 operations D.S.C. group of ten awarded to Air Commodore C. O. F. Modin, Royal Air Force, late Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Royal Marines and Royal Flying Corps, who was decorated for being among a handful of men to evade internment in Holland, witnessed further action with the R.N.D. in Gallipoli and the Dardanelles, and afterwards qualified as a pilot in the R.F.C.: an Air Commodore in Singapore by 1941, he was taken P.O.W. after an A.S.R. Launch was sunk by enemy aircraft - and his subsequent experiences as a prisoner, including witness statements of war crimes, are fully described in the extensive report he delivered on his liberation


The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, C.B.E. (Military) Commander’s 2nd type neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, in its Garrard & Co. case of issue; Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R., hallmarks for London 1914; 1914 Star, with slide-on clasp (Sub. Lieut. C. O. F. Modin, R.N.V.R., Benbow Bttn. R.N.D.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Capt. C. O. F. Modin, R.M.); 1939-45 Star; Pacific Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf; Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937, the Great War awards a little polished, otherwise generally very fine or better (10) £6000-8000

C.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1941.

D.S.C. London Gazette 1 January 1915.

Charles Oscar Frithriof Modin was born in January 1889 and educated at Sevenoaks Grammar School and in France. A pre-war member of the London Division, R.N.V.R., who qualified as a Swedish interpreter in 1909, he was mobilised as a Sub. Lieutenant in August 1914 and, shortly afterwards, embarked for Dunkirk, and thence by rail to Fort No. 4 near Antwerp, with Benbow Battalion, Royal Naval Division. And it was in this capacity that he won his D.S.C., for withdrawing with a party of his men along the Dutch frontier and avoiding internment. An old typescript account of his journey to freedom, written by a fellow officer, is included, and from which the following extracts have been taken:

‘I shall never forget my nights at Fort 4. We didn’t know then what power was in front of us. But we did get our first knowledge of modern artillery as the German shells whizzed into us and over us. Mostly over us in Antwerp. What a sight behind us! There appeared to be a vast mileage of flames ... It was a bad night, especially when we found, at about 2 in the morning, that we had been left behind. The Division had retired, in accordance with plans, and the order hadn’t reached ‘B’ Company in Fort 4. Well, well - it was a bit of a blow, but somebody always fits into these starts. In this case it was M. [Modin]. What a small hero he was! And how some of us tried to fit in with him. That assembly in the dark. “Get’em together boys, we’ve got to get out of this somehow.” No maps, no knowledge. What a war! However, we did manage to pack ourselves together, and marched out in decent order from Fort 4. We left behind one Belgian officer of artillery (I salute that officer), who was the sole occupant. All his men had left him. And so back to Antwerp, a blaze of fire now in front of us. It was a dreadful march, with shells falling round us and whizzing over us all the time ... And so on, on. We fell in with a wretched little Belgian cyclist (we thought he was a spy) and collared him good and hearty. Anyhow, he didn’t want to guide us at all, but S. and I, with bayonets very near his left and right kidney, showed him a far better way. And so on to Antwerp ... The city was deserted. The oil tanks at Hoboken a mass of flames. The only bridge over the Sheldt (a pontoon one) sunk by Belgian gunfire. So there again, we were stuck again. Or were we? Good heavens, no! Why M., who didn’t know two words of French, got busy again and lo and behold, “Penny Steamers” and tugs appeared to take us to Fort St. Marie. It was here that I got my first wound in the War, a bit of shell that sliced my shin ... And so to Fort Marie we went, where the authorities were opening the sluices to flood the country. We disembarked, and then had to march, or walk, by which we arrived on the Belgo-Dutch frontier, where a lot of our troops were going into Holland, under orders, for internment. That was dreadful to see our fellows handing over their rifles, ammunition and equipment and so not to be lost for who knows how long? It wasn’t at all a nice idea after what we had struggled through, and didn’t appeal to M. or S., or myself at all, so we cheerfully revolted. This was rather disastrous, temporarily, because M. was promptly put under arrest for refusing to be interned ... A contretemps, this, which was soon overcome by M. and escort, silently and stealthily deserting the Dutch frontier, with about 25 other stouthearts, for pastures new. And so we met at the back of the village, in a Belgian soldiers’ billet, and eat and drank horse soup with those good lads. What a meal! It was the first, excepting raw sugar-beet, we had eaten for about four days ... But we had no maps and the idea was to get to a port - we had a very big palaver. We must keep together (this 30). We must keep near the Dutch frontier (We would not go over the Dutch frontier). And so on pave roads littered with refugees, Belgian soldiers, and every kind of “odd and end” you can imagine, we got through St. Gillaes, Waesse, Stekene, Moerbeke, a host of small villages, and then to Salzaete, where we got a train to Ostend. I believe it was the last train through, but I’ve never had this confirmed. And thus the small 30 arrived at Ostend to be welcomed by all the Staff there, and fed ... ’

Having received his resultant D.S.C. at a Buckingham Palace investiture on 13 January 1915, Modin transferred to the Royal Marines and witnessed further active service with the R.N.D. in Gallipoli and the Dardanelles, but in 1916 he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, qualifying for his Aviator’s Certificate in January 1917. Ending the War as a Captain in the Royal Air Force, he was posted to Felixstowe in 1920, at which station he was lucky to survive a flying accident that April, Seaplane No. 4044 crashing nose first into the sea about a mile from the beach - four members of crew were killed, including the well-known aviator Squadron Leader E. R. Moon, but Modin and a fellow officer survived with minor injuries.


Advanced to Flight Lieutenant in November 1923, he went on to serve in aircraft carriers on attachment to the Fleet Air Arm. Steady promotion followed, too, and he was appointed a Group Captain in 1935, his early wartime appointments including service as Station C.O. of R.A.F. Feltwell, Norfolk, scene of at least two royal visits during his period of command, one by H.M. the King and another by H.R.H. the Duchess of Gloucester.

Further appointments in Egypt, Malta and Iraq having followed, he was appointed C.B.E. and advanced to Air Commodore in March 1941, shortly before his arrival at H.Q. Singapore as Air Officer Administration. And it was here, after attempting to escape the Japanese in an R.A.F. launch, that he was taken P.O.W. on 15 February 1942, an incident neatly summarised by Christopher Shores and Brian Cull in Bloody Shambles (Volume II - the Defence of Sumatra to the Fall of Burma):

During the afternoon of the 15th, one of the Air-Sea-Rescue launches (H.S.L. 105) which had departed Singapore with A.H.Q. Staff on board, including Air Commodore C. O. F. Modin, Group Captain E. B. Rice (former A.O.C. 224 Group), Wing Commander R. A. Chignell (former O.C. Kallang) and Squadron Leaders Wilf Clouston and Frank Howell, former commanders of 488 and 243 Squadrons respectively, was attacked seven times in the Banka Strait. A direct bomb hit after about 20 minutes severely damaged the craft, a splinter killing the popular and respected Chignell; his body was put over the side. One passenger was wounded and the small craft caught fire. The crew and passengers were picked up by two small steamers - Rentau and Relau - but both were intercepted and captured at dawn, all aboard becoming prisoners (Group Captain Rice died in a prison camp in 1943)’.

An accompanying typescript copy of extracts taken from the Air Commodore’s first letter home on repatriation adds further detail to this incident, including the fact he served as “powder monkey” to the launch’s gunners throughout the action; so, too, to his actual capture
We were handed over to the Nip Army ashore - when our long chapter of misery began. I found myself senior officer P.O.W. of some 1500 or more wrecked, captured, etc., service and civilian men, women and children, including evacuees, captured before us in the Banka Strait ... The only kit I had when sunk was my pistol and belt, a pair of shorts, a tin hat, and no shirt - we used them as bandages. I threw my pistol and belt into the sea when the Japs came to take us, and they collared my tin hat later on ... It has been three and a half years of purgatory, half-starved practically the whole time, and humiliated at every turn. No incoming mail for a full year past, and no news, except whatever we managed to wangle. But now we are free men, thank God - who certainly has looked after us, although many who passed into captivity are no longer of this world, worse luck ... Of my capture, life as a P.O.W., and the amazing and exciting series of events attendant upon the end of the War, and our release by officers of the Russian Red Army, I will recount in detail when at last we happily meet again. I am quite fit and well, though my weight fell to 52 kilos in 1942 (Xmas), but is now 60 kilos, and rising, now that we are getting far better and more plentiful food ... ’

The reference to the Banka Straits is not without interest, Modin’s post-war Senior Officer’s official report referring to his meeting with Sister Vivien Bullwinkel, the sole survivor of the massacre of Australian nurses in Banka Bay, at which he memorised her account of the incident. In fact Modin’s extensive account of his time as a P.O.W., which runs to nearly 100pp., refers to all manner of ill-treatment, together with escape and sabotage activity, nominal lists of those who died in captivity, and eye-witness accounts by other personnel - some of which may well have been used at subsequent War Crimes Trials in Japan (a CD containing Modin’s full report is included).

The Air Commodore retired to Portugal, where he died in December 1966.

SOLD WITH THE FOLLOWING ARCHIVE AND ARTEFACTS

(i) R.N.V.R. mobilisation form, dated 2 August 1914, with related envelope.

(ii) Letters of appreciation to Modin from ex-Benbow Battalion members, written from Groningen internment camp, Holland, in late 1914, including Stoker F. Long, Acting Leading Seaman W. H. Sutton and S. J. Curtis; together with hand written list of members of ‘Mr. Modin’s Antwerp Party’, on Y.M.C.A. note paper, and the above cited account of said party’s evasion, written by a fellow officer.

(iii) Mention in Despatches Certificate, in the name of ‘Sub. Lieutenant Charles Oscar Frithiof Modin, R.N.V.R.’, dated 5 December 1914.

(iv) Telegram from the G.O.C. R.N.D. Blandford, instructing Modin to report to Buckingham Palace for an investiture, dated 12 January 1915.

(v) A handwritten ‘Narrative of Operations 22nd-25th January 1916’ of the Western Frontier Force, dated 26 January 1916 ay H.Q., Mersa Matruh, 3pp.

(vi) Federation Aeronautique Internationale, British Empire, Aviator’s Certificate, in the name of Capt. Charles Oscar Modin, Royal Matines, R.N.D., and dated 11 January 1917, with portrait photograph in the cockpit of his aircraft.

(vii) The recipient’s commission warrants for the rank of Captain, R.A.F., dated 1 December 1918, and Flight Lieutenant, R.A.F., dated 1 November 1923.

(viii) The recipient’s C.B.E. warrant, dated 1 January 1941, in its Central Chancery envelope with accompanying letter.

(ix) A remarkable series of notebooks (10), as kept by the recipient while a P.O.W., the written contents including part diary format and part general subject matter, nominal lists of personnel, autographs (e.g. Percival, G.O.C. Malaya), and notes on his peacetime interests such as yachting, and much besides, with an array of contemporary inserts and illustrations, the whole contained in a folding, two-pocket khaki bag, the front of which is inscribed in ink, ‘Book-Wallet. Air Commodore C. O. F. Modin, R.A.F.’; together with another khaki button-down cover, this containing a separate notebook on yachting, several P.O.W. drawings, two of them depicting the attack on the recipient’s R.A.F. launch prior to capture, and another entitled ‘Life as a P.O.W. at Shirakawa’, and dated 20 June 1944, presentation paper scroll given to Modin by his fellow P.O.Ws on being moved from Palembang, Sumtra, bearing the signatures of approximately 250 grateful servicemen, in its bamboo case, and a crudely constructed drinking vessel, tin, with lid and wire handle, as used by Modin as a P.O.W.

(x) A large quantity of newspaper cuttings, magazines and pamphlets, including The London Gazette 26 February 1948, with Percival’s despatch for Malaya, December 1941 to February 1942, and copies of the R.A.F. Far East’s The Eagle, November and December 1941 issues.

(xi) Four photograph albums, the earliest commencing with Great War subject matter and extending through to F.A.A. days in the 1920s, with plenty of aircraft images and much besides (approximately 140 images); the second marking the ‘Summer Cruise of H.M.S. Eagle, 1928’, with printed text and around 25 “tourist” images of places visited; the third of a similar period with many evocative aircraft and naval scenes, particularly Malta (approximately 110); and the last with scenes from an R.A.F. display meeting in the U.K. in the 1930s (approximately 20 images).

(xii) A mass of loose leaf photographs (approximately 150), some of them of a family nature but the majority relating to his service career, the earliest of ‘O.M. on a F.E. taking off, 31.1.1917’ through to 1939-45 War images in the Far East, with much inter-war coverage of aircraft and personnel, etc., and around a dozen or so relating to H.R.H. the Duchess of Gloucester’s visit to R.A.F. Feltwell and / or Churchill aboard a battleship, together with another of Modin at the time of his C.B.E. investiture, carried out ‘In the Field’ (i.e. on his aerodrome).

(xiii) The recipient’s R.A.F. officer’s side-cap, with Gieves, London label.