Orders, Decorations and Medals

An exceptional Great War D.S.C. and Bar, A.F.C. group of six awarded to Group Captain Vivian Gaskell-Blackburn, Royal Air Force and Royal Naval Air Service, who took part in the world’s first Carrier Air Strike in 1914, flew in the operations against the Königsberg in East Africa, and was decorated for Kut-el-Amara and the operations at Ctesiphon in 1915 and 1916
Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R., with Second Award Bar; Air Force Cross, G.V.R.; 1914-15 Star (Flt. Lieut., D.S.C., R.N.A.S.); British War and Victory Medals (Lt. Col., R.A.F.); Coronation 1937, the group mounted Court style, good very fine (6)

D.S.C. London Gazette 21 January 1916. ‘Flight Lieutenant Blackburn did excellent reconnaissance work and came under heavy fire on the afternoon of the 28th September, 1915, whilst carrying despatches between the General Officer Commanding and the “Comet” ’.

Bar to D.S.C. London Gazette 17 May 1918. ‘For services in the advance and retreat from Ctesiphon when he performed most excellent work.’

A.F.C. London Gazette 10 October 1919. M.I.D. London Gazette 19 February 1915, 8 December 1915, 5 May 1916, 13 July 1916, and 10 October 1922.

Vivian Gaskell-Blackburn was born at Leeds in 1892, and shortly after leaving Uppingham, learnt to fly a Bristol biplane at Brooklands, taking out his Pilot’s Certificate in 1913. At the outbreak of war he was commissioned in the R.N.A.S. and took part as a Seaplane pilot on the Cuxhaven Raid carried out on Christmas Day 1914. This was the fourth and last raid of the year 1914 to be carried out by naval airmen but, more importantly it was the very first raid to be carried out using carrier-borne seaplanes. On Christmas Eve the seaplane carriers Riviera, Empress and Engadine, each with three Short aircraft below decks, and escorted by the light cruisers Arethusa and Undaunted and eight destroyers, were steaming across the North Sea; before dawn the small but powerfull force lay some twelve miles north of Heligoland on a calm sea, awaiting the opening of another bitterly cold day. Then one by one nine floatplanes were hoisted out and went skimming away. Seven of the Short biplanes rose without any difficulty into the air, but the remaining two machines refused to become airborne with their heavy weight of bombs and had to be swung back on board their parent carriers. The seven pilots committed to action - Flight Commanders Douglas Oliver, F. E. Hewlett, R. Peel-Ross and Cecil Kilner; Flight Lieutenants Arnold Miley and C. H. Edmonds; and Flight Sub-Lieutenant Vivian Gaskell-Blackburn - huddled deeper into their draughty cockpits in the clear, icy air and set course for Cuxhaven.

Over the German coast, the floatplanes encountered a swirling mist which soon resolved into dense fog, and the pilots consequently failed to locate their primary objective, the Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven. A number of bombs were therefore dropped in the dockyard area, causing only slight damage; but a reconnaissance of the German harbours and roadsteads was more successfully carried out. By 10 a.m. on Christmas Day three of the seven floatplanes had returned to their parent ships and were being swung aboard. Of the other four machines, three had landed on the water near the British submarine E11, which barely had time to pick up the aeroplane crews before crash diving to avoid bombs dropped by a watchful Zeppelin. Gaskell-Blackburn was one of these three pilots picked up by the E11, having run short of fuel and therefore forced down. His Observer, C.P.O. Mechanic J. W. Bell, was awarded the D.S.M. on this occasion, as was another of the Observers. Flight Commander Kilner and Flight Lieutenant Edmonds were each awarded the D.S.O. Gaskell-Blackburn was, for his part, mentioned in despatches London Gazette 19 February 1915.

In the operations against the Königsberg in East Africa in July 1915, Gaskell-Blackburn was commended for his work spotting the fall of shot from the bombardment from H.M.Ships Severn and Mersey. At this time he was flying a Henri Farman biplane from a base on Mafia Island, German East Africa.

He served during the advance on Kut-el-Amara, Mesopotamia, 1915, and on 27th and 28th September he did excellent air reconnaissance work and came under heavy fire on the afternoon of the 28th September while carrying despatches between General Townshend, G.O. commanding, and Lt-Cdr E. C. Cookson on the river steamer Comet. Cookson was killed and won the Victoria Cross that day; Gaskell-Blackburn was awarded the first of his D.S.C.’s. He was awarded the bar to his D.S.C. for his services during the operations at Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia. In 1918 he was promoted Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Air Force, and later awarded the A.F.C. for services during the war. In August 1919 he resigned from the Navy and was granted a permanent commission in the R.A.F. He was one of the few officers in the Service who were given special permission to wear a beard. He commanded No. 55 (Bombing) Squadron at Mosul in 1920-22, and was mentioned in despatches ‘for distinguished service rendered during active operations in Iraq during 1920-21’. He held commands in Egypt, Constantinople and in England, where he was at one time Commandant of the School of Balloon Training at Larkhill and later in command of the R.A.F. Reception Depot at West Drayton. By the time he retired from the Service in 1947 he had commanded an unusually wide variety of units in war and peace, including an Armoured Car Company in Iraq during 1931. Group Captain Gaskell-Blackburn died on 6 October 1956.