Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The British War Medal awarded to Lieutenant A. B. Raper, Royal Air Force, late Royal Flying Corps, who served as an M.P. 1918-22, in which period he undertook a “special mission” for the Foreign Office to German-occupied Finland, and worked for the Russian Aviation Mission, in which latter capacity he befriended Sidney Reilly, “Ace of Spies”, and was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus: Raper continued to supply the F.O. with information gleaned on overseas trips, but he died in April 1941 when returning from the U.S.A. in the S.S. Nerissa, which ship was torpedoed with heavy loss of life
British War Medal 1914-20 (Lieut. A. B. Raper, R.A.F.), good very fine £300-350

Alfred Baldwin Raper was born in London in May 1889 and was educated at Merchant Taylors. By profession a partner in a firm of timber merchants in London and Liverpool, pre-war Roper travelled extensively, visiting ‘France, Turkey, Norway, Finland, Russia, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Egypt, Asia Minor, Serbia, Bulgaria and Rumania’ (his R.A.F. service record refers).

Commissioned in the Royal Flying Corps, Roper qualified for his Aviator’s Certificate (No. 4203) on a Maurice Farman Biplane at the Military School, Grantham in early December 1916, being described in one obituary as ‘a competent and courageous pilot’, while his service record reveals many types of aircraft flown, including Bristol Fighters and Sopwith Camels. But in December 1918, on winning the seat for Islington East in the General Election as a Coalition (Unionist) candidate, he resigned his commission.

His political career launched, Raper became an avid speaker in the House of Commons, fearlessly tackling Lloyd George, the Prime Minister, and senior parliamentarians such as Winston Churchill and Bonar Law - included are two files with photocopied extracts taken from official Parliamentary debates, detailing all the relevant exchanges 1919-21.

His main interests were in Russia and the Baltic, but, as a member of the Parliamentary Air Committee, he was also a strong advocate in defending the interests of the Royal Air Force, cases in point being his heated exchanges on behalf of British P.O.Ws of the Bolsheviks, and support for the use of parachutes: and he practiced what he preached, as verified by Flight Magazine in August 1920: ‘In order to get practical, first-hand information as to the value and efficiency of life-saving parachutes, Mr. Baldwin Raper, M.P. for East Islington N., on August 5, dived from a Handley Page aeroplane when flying over Cricklewood at a height of 600 feet, and with the aid of his “Guardian Angel” parachute landed safely on the ground. Mr. Raper, who, it may be recalled, served during the War in the R.A.F., weighs more than 15 stone, and the descent occupied nearly 40 seconds.’

Further accompanying research includes copies of his extensive correspondence with the Editor of The Times, once more illustrating the scope of his interests, his determination to pose awkward questions, and his admirable leaning toward first-hand research - thus a visit to the south of Ireland in February-March 1921, from which he concluded, in his letter to The Times: ‘Neither England or Ireland can afford to carry the present state of things to its logical conclusion, which is the extermination of the young manhood of the South of Ireland, not to speak of the unnecessary sacrifice of a large number of our own young men serving in the Crown Forces, and the general ruin of the country.’

As mentioned above, Raper was well-known to Sidney Reilly, no doubt having first had contact with the “Ace of Spies” as a result of his work for the Russian Aviation Mission, for which, as verified by various sources, he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus. In Trust No One - The Secret World of Sidney Reilly, the author Richard B. Spence refers to Raper’s “special mission” to German-occupied Finland in April 1918, and to the fact Reilly praised him ‘as a loyal friend and anti-Bolshevik and an indispensable link to like-minded men in Parliament’; so, too, to several meetings they had in London.

Of his dangerous and delicate “special mission” to German-occupied Finland in early 1918, the full story is recounted in his official report to Sir Esme Howard at the British Legation, Stockholm, a copy of which is included. Under a variety of headings, Raper reports on such topics as the numbers and movements of German troops in Finland, casualties and prisoners, arms and ammunition, financial and commercial matters and much besides. Of “Red” prisoners, he stated: ‘They number now about 70,000. They are to be tried in groups. A few leaders will probably be shot or imprisoned, and all the rest released conditionally.’ Here, then, the type of work admired by Reilly. Immediately following his Finnish trip, Raper was sent to Oslo to act as a temporary Assistant Military Attache, in which period he assisted Sir Ernest Shackleton in purchasing stores for his Murmansk Expedition.

On leaving the House of Commons in 1922, Raper extended his business interests, including taking up a Directorship in the Alliance Film Corporation, hailed as a £1 million enterprise that would ensure a ‘fair share of the world’s film trade would come to this country.’ In June of the same year, he married Elizabeth Marchioness Conyngham, an unhappy union that received much publicity in the columns of The Times on account of her adultery; sadly, it would appear a similar fate befell his second marriage.

Continuing his travels between the wars, Raper built up a strong network of contacts in Scandinavia, and, in 1926, was awarded the Finnish Order of the Rose for his work in promoting Anglo-Finnish trade. He also delivered a report to the Home Office on Soviet Russia, which he visited in early 1929 - ‘I met a good many beetles at the Hotel de L’Europe, Leningrad, but they are old friends in Russia from pre-revolution days. The appearance of the people in the streets is very sad, and I cannot remember once having seen either a middle aged or elderly person smile, except when drunk ...’.

On the renewal of hostilities, Raper once more made himself available to promote British interests overseas, an early undertaking being a fact finding mission to Sweden, from which country he returned in February 1940 - this the trip that prompted him to contact Lord Halifax with news of an indirect approach by Hermann Goering to parley with the British Government (copy report refers, one of several such reports included).

A successful speaking tour in the United States followed - so successful that ‘at the request of the authorities he postponed his return to this country for some weeks in order to undertake a number of additional speaking engagements’ (his Times obituary refers). But tragedy struck on his return journey, when the S.S. Nerissa was torpedoed and sunk on 30 April 1941, a victim of top U-Boat ace Erich Topp in the U-552. The Master, 82 crew and 124 passengers were lost, Raper among them, but not before having helped a young boy, Terence Lomas, onto a raft - a survivor, Sergeant-Major Edwards of the Canadian Corps of Signals, said in his witness statement that Raper had subsequently slipped off the raft during the night.

A keen member of the London Rotary Club, a Liveryman of the Woolmen’s Company and, up until his loss in the Nerissa, an equally keen member of the Home Guard, Raper was 52 years of age.