Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The miniature V.C. and M.C. pair named to Captain J. A. Liddell, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, and Royal Flying Corps, who died of wounds on 31 August 1915, together with an extensive personal archive

Victoria Cross, the reverse of suspension bar engraved in the style of the full sized award ‘Capt. J. A. Liddell. 3rd. Bn. A. & S.H. & R.F.C.’, the reverse of Cross similarly engraved ‘31. July 1915’; Military Cross, G.V.R., reverse engraved ‘Lieut. J. A. Liddell. 93rd. A. & S.H. Feb. 19. 1915.’, extremely fine (2) £2,000-£3,0006

V.C. London Gazette 23 August 1915:
‘For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on 31 July 1915. When on a flying reconnaissance over Ostend-Bruges-Ghent he was severely wounded (his right thigh being broken), which caused momentary unconsciousness, but by a great effort he recovered partial control after his machine had dropped nearly 3,000 feet, and notwithstanding his collapsed state succeeded, although continually fired at, in completing his course, and brought the aeroplane into our lines, half an hour after he had been wounded.
The difficulties experience by this Officer in saving his machine, and the life of his observer, cannot be readily expressed, but as the control wheel and throttle control were smashed, and also one of the under-carriage struts, it would seem incredible that he could have accomplished his task.’

M.C. London Gazette 18 February 1915.

John Aidan Liddell was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 3 August 1888, the son of John Liddell Esq., of Sherfield Manor, Hampshire, and was educated at Stonyhurst and Balliol College, Oxford. He was commissioned into the 3rd Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Special Reserve of Officers) in 1912, and prompted by his interest in all things mechanical he took up flying, gaining his Royal Aero Club pilot’s licence at Vickers School of Flying, Brooklands, Surrey, on 14 May 1914. He served during the Great War on the Western Front from 30 August 1914 as acting Captain in charge of the Machine Gun Section of the 2nd Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, and was present at the retreat from Mons, the Battles of the Marne and the Aisne, and in the 1st Battle of Ypres. He was serving in the trenches on Christmas Day 1914, and witnessed the Christmas Day truce, but by the end of January 1915 his health had broken down and he was evacuated to the United Kingdom. For his services on the Front during the opening months of the War he was Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 18 February 1915) and was awarded the Military Cross.

Liddell joined the Royal Flying Corps in May 1915, and underwent training at Dover, Shoreham, and Farnborough. He was promoted Captain on 20 July 1915, and returned to the Front three days later, with ‘A’ Flight, 7 Squadron, based at St. Omer, France. He undertook his first patrol on 29 July 1915, in an RE 5 two-seater, when accompanied by Second Lieutenant H. H.Watkings they were attacked by German aircraft over Heesteert, but retuned to base safely. Two days later, on 31 July 1915, he was involved in a patrol over Ostend-Bruges-Ghent, this time with Second Lieutenant R. H. Peck as his observer, when he was severely wounded, but by a super-human effort he managed to bring his aircraft home safely, an act of gallantry for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross. As a result of his injuries his right leg had to be amputated, but the operation was not a success, and he died in La Panne Hospital, Belgium, from post-operational septicaemia on 31 August 1915.

Liddell’s body was repatriated back to the United Kingdom, and he is buried in the Roman Catholic Section of Basingstoke Old Cemetery, Hampshire, on 4 September 1915, not far from the family home at Sherfield. His Victoria Cross was presented to his father by H.M. King George V in a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 16 November 1916.

Sold with a large personal and family archive, including:
- The Diary and Letters of Captain John Aidan Liddell, V.C. M.C. 1914-1915, typed and privately bound in suede covers.
- A number of the original letters written by the recipient to various family members during the Great War.
- A number of the original letters written by the recipient’s brother, Cuthbert H. Liddell, 15th Hussars, to various family members during the Great War.
- Order of the Burial of the Dead, the specially printed order of service for the Requiem Mass held for the recipient at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, London, this bound in leather covers.
- Pressed flowers taken from the family wreath at the recipient’s grave in 1915.
- Two portrait photographs of the recipient in Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders uniform, these glazed and framed; two glass photographic plates of the recipient similarly attired; and other family photographs.
- A copy of ‘Reminiscences of Sherfield-on-Loddon’, the family home
- A large quantity of newspaper cuttings, material relating to the Victoria Cross and George Cross Memorial at Westminster Abbey, other related ephemera; and copied research.

Note: The recipient’s full sized medals, comprising the Victoria Cross, Military Cross, 1914 Star, with clasp; British War Medal; and Victory Medal with M.I.D. oak leaves, are owned by the Lord Ashcroft V.C. Trust, and are currently on display in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery in the Imperial War Museum.

For the M.B.E. group of medals awarded to the recipient’s sister Dorothy, the recipient of a number of the letters included in this lot, see lot 23.