Auction Catalogue

12 & 13 December 2012

Starting at 10:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

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Lot

№ 1706

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13 December 2012

Hammer Price:
£3,800

A rare Great War A.F.M. group of five awarded to Chief Mechanic T. Parry, Royal Air Force, late Royal Naval Air Service, a qualified Airship Coxswain

Air Force Medal, G.V.R. (313853 Cf. Mech. Parry, T., R.A.F.); 1914 Star, with slide-on clasp (225726 T. Parry, Ldg. Mech., R.N.A.S.); British War and Victory Medals (225726 T. Parry, C.P.O. 3, R.N.); Royal Air Force L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., coinage bust (313853 F./Sjt. T. Parry, R.A.F.), these last five mounted as worn, contact marks, but generally very fine or better (5) £1600-1800

A.F.M. London Gazette 3 June 1919.

Thomas Parry was born born at Salford, Lancashire, in November 1887, and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in April 1903, aged 15 years.

In the period leading up to the outbreak of hostilities, he served in the submarine depot ships
Rosario and Dolphin, but in July 1914 he was transferred to the fledgling Royal Naval Air Service as a Leading Mechanic, and it was in this capacity that he went out to Dunkirk as a member of the Balloon Observation Detachment in October 1914.

His subsequent wartime appointments included time at Hendon Naval Air Station in April-May 1915 and at Aberdeen from June of the latter year until July 1917, in which period he was advanced to Petty Officer Mechanic and qualified as an Airship Coxswain. Having then gained appointment as Chief Petty Officer Mechanic, he served at Barrow, Howden and Pulham and Airship Stations in the latter half of 1917 and was transferred to the newly established Royal Air Force in April 1918, as a Chief Mechanic. His subsequent award of the A.F.M. most probably related to ongoing duties in airships and he added the L.S. & G.C. Medal to his accolades in
AMO 419 of June 1922.

Sold with a file of research.