Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second World War ‘Air-Sea Rescue’ M.B.E. group of eight awarded to Squadron Leader R. Beard, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, late Master Mariner, Mercantile Marine and Lieutenant, Royal Naval Reserve

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire M.B.E. (Military) Member’s 2nd type breast badge, in its Royal Mint case of issue; British War Medal 1914-20 (Lieut., R.N.R.); Mercantile Marine War Medal (Richard Beard); Victory Medal 1914-19 (Lieut., R.N.R.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Defence and War Medals, together with related Masonic/R.A.O.B. badges (5), three named, generally very fine or better (13) £500-600

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Selection of Medals from the Collection of the Late Noel Morris.

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M.B.E. London Gazette 13 June 1946. The recommendation states:

‘By his unremitting devotion to duty, from 1941 to 1945, both in the Air Ministry and outside, Squadron Leader Beard has ensured that the Air-Sea Rescue organisation, both at home and overseas, was made as perfect as possible. His long experience as a Master Mariner has been of great value. He has given encouragement and guidance in dealing with new problems arising in connection with the organisation. Squadron Leader Beard’s foresight and care have undoubtedly contributed much to the results achieved by Air-Sea Rescue services.’

Richard Beard, who was born at Great Dunmow, Essex in September 1889, was apprenticed to the Hain Shipping Company of Cornwall as a teenager.

A Mate by the outbreak of hostilities, he served in the Trecarrell, Trecarne and Trelissick between 1914-16, but transferred to the Royal Naval Reserve as a Temporary Sub. Lieutenant in August of the latter year. During his time in the Mercantile Marine, he visited his brother, George, a Flight Commander in the R.N.A.S. based at No. 1 Wing, St. Pol airfield, Dunkirk (see following Lot); an original R.N.A.S. pass issued in Richard’s name at Dunkirk on Boxing Day 1915, accompanies the Lot.

For his own part, active service ensued as a Transport Officer in Salonica between October 1916 and December 1917, following which he enjoyed seagoing appointments aboard the cruiser H.M.S. Brilliant and the destroyers Racehorse and Angler, the latter as part of the Dover Patrol. Immediately after the War he joined the aircraft carrier Ark Royal in the Black Sea, and his final posting prior to being demobilised in August 1919 was aboard the Empress, another carrier, as a Navigating Officer. During this period he was involved in the evacuation of refugees from South Russia.

Beard returned to his old shipping company and served as a Master until retiring ashore in 1924, when he became a landlord of the Black Boys Hotel, and later the Red Lion Hotel, in the Norfolk market town of Aylsham. But the renewal of hostilities witnessed him volunteering for the R.A.F.V.R. and he was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in July 1940, his expertise as a navigator resulting in him being posted to the seaplane base at Calshot as a Marine Craft Officer. Here, among other projects, he worked on high speed launches and met the yacht designer Uffa Fox, who was working on the production of an airborne lifeboat - he also assisted in salvaging a downed Me. 109 off the Needles at the height of the battle of Britain. A brief stint of duty with H.Q. Mediterranean Allied Air Force followed in 1944 and Baird ended the War at the Directorate of Air Sea Rescue, where, among other tasks, he advised on navigation matters for a clandestine raid on one of the Channel Islands. He was demobilised in the rank of Squadron Leader in December 1945 and was awarded the M.B.E.

Baird died at Aylsham in September 1967, having published a series of biographical articles in the Eastern Daily Press, features that eventually formed the basis of his privately distributed autobiography A Master Mariner’s Log.

Sold with the recipient’s original M.B.E. warrant and a bound, typescript copy of the above mentioned memoir, A Master Mariner’s Log, together with the published version which was edited by Noel Morris.