Auction Catalogue

19 September 2003

Starting at 11:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria. To coincide with the OMRS Convention

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

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Lot

№ 1236

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19 September 2003

Hammer Price:
£3,700

An outstanding Great War D.S.O. group of eight awarded to Wing Commander R. B. Lovemore, 3rd London Regiment, Royal Flying Corps, and Royal Air Force, decorated as a Lieutenant for saving the life of a fellow pilot after they had both been shot down, and a founding father of South African Airways

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R.; 1914-15 Star (Pte., 5th M.R.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Lieut., R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals, together with rare 1st pattern 1918 R.A.F. metal officer’s cap badge, the reverse with J. R. Gaunt & Son Ltd metal name-plate, and 1st pattern 1918 R.A.F. cloth wings, very fine or better (10) £3000-3500

D.S.O. London Gazette 8 February 1919: ‘On 28th October [1918] this officer, attacked by two Fokkers, was driven down and compelled to land on marshy ground the enemy side of a river [the river Scheldt]. Having extricated himself from his machine, he saw another of our machines

land a short distance away, the pilot being thrown out; proceeding to the spot, Lieutenant Lovemore found the pilot insensible, his head and shoulders under water, and the fuselage over his legs. Releasing him from the fuselage, he dragged him out of the water, and in a few minutes the pilot recovered his senses. Lieutenant Lovemore then proceeded towards the river, and seeing a corporal of ours on the other side he directed him to go and get help, he himself returning to the pilot, whom he carried to the river bank. On arriving there he saw an Infantry Officer on the opposite bank, who swam across to join him, and between them they carried the pilot down to the river and swam across, holding him up. The enemy by this time had brought up machine guns, so that they were under fire when swimming across; they, however, got across in safety, and, a stretcher party arriving, the pilot was carried back to our lines. The cool courage and disregard of danger displayed by Lieutenant Lovemore is deserving of very high praise.’

The group is sold with an original M.I.D. Certificate, Lieutenant General J. L. van Deventer, K.C.B., dated 11th October 1917 (Royal Flying Corps, 2nd Lt. R. B. Lovemore, R. Fus.), three good portrait photographs and seven others, and much further research including many copy news cuttings.

Robert Baillie Lovemore was born in Swaziland 1893, and is believed to be only the second white child born in that country, in which his father was a Justice of the Peace. He was educated at Michaelhouse, Natal, and joined the Imperial Light Horse (5th Mounted Rifles) on the outbreak of war in 1914. He served with the Imperial Light Horse in the German S. W. African campaign in 1914-15, during which he was severely wounded and mentioned in despatches. Proceeding to England, he joined the Inns of Court O.T.C. in July 1915, and was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), in July 1916. Keen to fly, he immediately volunteered for the Royal Flying Corps and learned to fly at Salisbury Plain on the Maurice Farman Shorthorn, completing his ‘first solo after two hours and 15 minutes of instruction.’ Even after gaining his wings, Lovemore still had only 35 hours on Avro 504Ks.

He started his operational flying career with No. 26 Squadron on BE2Cs in German East Africa from December 1916 to September 1917, but, having contracted Malaria, was invalided out and hospitalised for a time in Cairo. Returning once more to England, he converted to the new SE5 fighter and was posted to No. 29 Squadron in France in September 1918. In France he had two known victories but according to a later interview ‘he shot down three Fokkers and a captive balloon.’ The later was actually shot down on 4 November 1918, after his amazing D.S.O.-winning exploits of one week earlier, when he himself had been shot down. Lovemore flew a special SE5 in the squadron, his plane having been donated by the Chief Regent and chiefs of Swaziland, and suitably inscribed.

After receiving his D.S.O. from the King at Buckingham Palace, sometime early in 1919, Lovemore returned to South Africa, where he started farming at Port Elizabeth. In about 1932 of 1933 he was approached by his old friend, Major Allsiter Miller, who asked him to join a small air service company in Port Elizabeth called Union Airways. It was later moved to Durban and at the time was the only air service in existence in South Africa. However, after a series of high profile crashes and severe financial difficulties, it was taken over by the State in February 1934, to become South African Airways.

At that time, Lovemore was approached by the head of the S.A. Police, Sir J. P. de Villiers, with a view to forming an air wing, and thus he became the only member of the S.A. Police to join the force with the rank of Captain. The air wing, contrary to promises, was never formed and after a couple of years Lovemore resigned to take up an offer to join Wilson Airways in Kenya, initially as a pilot and then as chief flying instructor. After the Second World War, this unit became East African Airways.

On the outbreak of war in 1939, Lovemore was invited to form the Kenyan African Air Unit for the purpose of training pilots for the Royal Air Force. Subsequently this unit was seconded to the R.A.F., and Lovemore was transferred, as second-in-command, of a Transport Squadron based at Khartoum in the Sudan. After some months with No. 117 Squadron, he returned to South Africa to take command of No. 7 Elementary Flying Training School at Kroonstad, and then of No. 6 E.F.T.S. at Potchefstroom. After the war, despite an offer of the command of an R.A.F. installation in Singapore and promotion to Group Captain, Lovemore returned to farming in Port Elizabeth. He died there on 26 July 1978, aged 84.