Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The China Medal 1900 awarded to Lieutenant T. E. Martin-Leake, Royal Engineers, who drowned in a ballooning accident off the Dorset Coast, 28 May 1907

China 1900, no clasp (Lieut. T. E. Martin-Leake, R.E.) suspension re-pinned; together with a Balloon School Royal Engineers Medallion, by A. Fenwick, conjoined busts of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra left, reverse: an airship over the town of Farnborough, 32mm., base silver metal, unnamed, good very fine and better (2) £1200-1500

Ex Dr A. L. Lloyd Collection, Bonhams 16 October 2013.

Theodore Edward Martin-Leake was born on 15 December 1878, the son of Stephen Martin-Leake, J.P., of Thorpe Hall, Thorpe, Essex, and of Marshalls, High Cross, near Ware, Hertfordshire. The family consisted of two daughters and five sons - the best known being Arthur (born in 1874), who became a Lieutenant-Colonel in the R.A.M.C., earning the Victoria Cross in the Second Boer War and Bar in the Great War.

Theodore Edward Martin-Leake joined the Royal Engineers on 23 March 1899 as a 2nd Lieutenant. He served 2 i/c to Captain A. H. B. Hume, R.E., in 4 Balloon Section R.E. for the China Campaign 1900 for which he received the above China Medal 1900 without clasp. He was promoted to Lieutenant on 3 August 1901 and in September 1902 was serving at Aldershot at the Balloon School R.E. By 1906 he was in the Balloon Section R.E. based in Malta but was soon after posted once more to the Aldershot (Farnborough) Balloon School.

It was on the occasion of a visit by H.M. King Edward VII and Prince Fushimi of Japan to Aldershot on 28 May 1907, for the launching of the Army’s first airship Nulli Secundus, that two Royal Engineer Balloonists: Lieutenants Martin-Leake and Caulfield, made a demonstration ascent in the hydrogen filled war balloon Thresher. Both experienced balloonists, they ascended from Farnborough at 16.22 and travelled approximately 80 miles in a S.W. direction. Their log recorded they were over Bradford Peverell, Dorset at 20.15 and they were seen and spoken to at Dorchester when they queried their whereabouts at about 20.20. At 20.25 the balloon was seen by the Chief Officer of the Abbotsbury Coast Guard Station. With the evening getting dark, the officer maintained observations of the balloon, and at 20.30 he saw it descend, one mile offshore and momentarily touch the water before rising again; he was able to report that both occupants of the basket were alive and seemingly well at that point.

The partly inflated balloon was found on 23 June some 10 miles off Exmouth; the body of Lieutenant Caulfield was found off Wyke Regis, Dorset. On 29 June the body of Lieutenant Martin-Leake was found in the sea off Burton Bradstock, Dorset. The recovered balloon was found to have no fault. In the inquest held on 1 July 1907, the verdict in each case was ‘Accidentally Drowned’. Martin-Leake’s funeral was held at Thorpe, Essex on 2 July 1907. A commemorative plaque in his memory was placed in the church of St. John the Evangelist, at High Cross, Hertfordshire.

With a quantity of copied research including reports on the accident, correspondence and newspaper extracts. Also with an original County of Hertford, Lieutenancy Office slip expressing thanks for service in the Civil Defence Organisation. The slip is addressed to ‘Mr Martin-Leake’, dated ‘September, 1945’.