Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Squadron Leader O. W. Pellatt, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, late Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force, who flew operationally in the Great War as a pilot on coastal patrol duties

British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. O. W. Pellatt. R.A.F.); Defence and War Medals 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf; Air Efficiency Award, G.VI.R., 1st issue (Act. Sqn. Ldr. O. W. Pellatt. R.A.F.V.R.), generally good very fine and better (5) £300-£360

Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, March 2007.

Oscar William Pellatt, who was born at Keynsham, Somerset, in May 1891, was appointed Probationary Flight Officer in the Royal Naval Air Service in May 1917, and was confirmed in the rank of Flight Sub. Lieutenant in October 1917, the month in which he qualified for his Aviator’s Certificate (No. 5319) in Sopwith Pups at Cranwell. He would then appear to have been posted to the R.N.A.S. Station at Great Yarmouth, from which base coastal patrols were carried out, and he was advanced to Lieutenant on the formation of the Royal Air Force in April 1918. Pellatt was latterly employed as a pilot in No. 229 Squadron and was transferred to the Unemployed List in May 1919.

On the renewal of hostilities, he was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the Administrative and Special Duties Branch of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, in which capacity he was employed on intelligence duties. Advanced to Flying Officer in September 1940 and to Flight Lieutenant in October 1942, he was mentioned in despatches by the Air Officer C.-in-C. in the New Year’s Honours List in 1943. Placed back on the Unemployed List in June 1946, Pellatt was permitted to retain the rank of Squadron Leader, and was awarded his Air Efficiency Award in March 1947.

Sold with copied research including a photograph of the recipient as a Flight Sub-Lieutenant in 1917.