Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A most interesting and poignant Great War O.B.E. group of four awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel E. W. Powell, Royal Flying Corps, late Intelligence Corps - with which unit he embarked to France as a founder member in August 1914: a three time Boat Race winning Cambridge Blue, Olympic Bronze medallist, accomplished artist and mountaineer, ‘a man of genius which showed itself in many fields’, he was tragically killed together with three fellow Eton masters climbing in the Swiss Alps in 1933

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 1st type, breast badge, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1918; 1914 Star (2. Lieut: E. W. Powell); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Lt. Col. E. W. Powell. R.A.F.), together with London Olympics 1908 participation medallion, white metal - pewter, good very fine (5) £1,800-£2,200

O.B.E. London Gazette 3 June 1919 - Egypt:
‘In recognition of distinguished services rendered during the war’

Eric Walter Powell was born on 6 May 1886 at The Vicarage, Holy Innocents, Hornsey, London, the son of Rev. Robert Walter Powell and his wife Mary Caroline Hankey. He was educated at Eton, where he became an accomplished oarsman, and Trinity College, Cambridge, gaining his rowing Blue and enjoying victory in the Boat Race as a member of the Cambridge eight in 1906, 1907 and 1908. Powell also participated in the 1908 London Olympic Games when Cambridge University made up a boat rowing in the eights and won a bronze medal for Great Britain. At this time, 3rd place rowing crew members did not receive a bronze medal each, rather, the prize bronze medal went to the team captain (presumably for the clubhouse), however, they were presented with their ‘participation’ pewter medals and a 3rd place certificate. Having returned to Eton in 1910, now as a master, Powell won the Diamond Challenge Sculls, seen as the pinnacle of amateur individual rowing, at Henley Royal Regatta in 1912.

On the outbreak of the Great War, Powell’s expertise in languages saw him invited to join the newly created Intelligence Corps under its first Commandant, Major T. G. J. Torrie, 17th Light Cavalry, Indian Army. He was swiftly commissioned 2nd Lieutenant and embarked overseas on 8 August 1914 as one of this new unit’s 13 founder officers. In France, the work of the Intelligence Corps in the area of aerial reconnaissance photography analysis and signals interception soon led to a close relationship with the Royal Flying Corps whose main role in the early days of the war was the provision of such information. It was in these circumstances, then, that Powell discovered an interest in flying and he successfully qualified as a pilot on 29 May 1915. Having transferred to the Royal Flying Corps as a specialist in Intelligence Corps work, the following June he was posted to No. 13 Squadron, an artillery observation and photo-reconnasissance squadron flying RE8s on the Western Front and on 8 December 1916 he was promoted Captain and Flight Commander. Whilst on the Western Front he painted various aircraft scenes.

Powell returned to the Home Establishment on 5 August 1917 as Squadron Commander at H.Q. Training Division and was advanced Major and Squadron Leader on the formation of the R.A.F. on 1 April 1918. He was posted to R.A.F. Headquarters, Egypt on 3 June 1918 and was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel on 25 June, taking command of the newly formed 32 Training Wing the following month. He reverted to the unemployed list on 22 January 1919. Mentioned in Despatches three times for his services on the Western Front (London Gazettes 22 June 1915, 1 January 1916, and 4 January 1917), he was created an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (Military) and was also Mentioned in Despatches for his services in Egypt (London Gazette 5 June 1919).

After the war, Powell spent a year in Paris studying art before returning once again to Eton as an art teacher and house master, soon becoming a landscape artist of some repute. Favouring watercolour as a medium he exhibited at Walker’s Gallery in New Bond Street on seven occasions between 1920 and 1933 and several of his pictures were exhibited at the Alpine Club in 1925 and 1930 including one entitled Piz Roseg from the Morteratsch, the very alpine peak that would later cost him his life.
Having started climbing after the war, Powell took up Alpine mountaineering in 1922 completing ascents of the Jungfrau, Wetterhorn and Schreckhorn and by 1925 he had climbed most of the Oberland peaks and had been elected to the Alpine Club.
He met his death, tragically, with three fellow Eton masters while climbing the Eselgrat on Piz Roseg in the Swiss Alps on 17 August 1933. Shortly before the accident, White-Thompson, another one of those killed, wrote in a letter to his family from the Golf-Hotel des Alpes, Samedan, ‘Eric is the same, ever steady ... leading up or coming down last. In the intervals he paints.’
The four men are buried in the grounds of the Santa Maria Kirche in Pontresina, Switzerland and also commemorated on a memorial in the ante-chapel at Eton; there is a separate memorial tablet to Powell in the cloister. To mark the 50th anniversary of the disaster, an exhibition of 48 of Powell’s paintings was held at Eton in 1983. Amongst these were pictures of Windsor, Paris and Venice as well as scenes from the Great War and the Alps. Eton College possesses a number of his watercolours and one oil, and the Alpine Club Library in London has an extensive archive of material relating to him.

After his death, Cyril Alington, Head Master of Eton College, eulogised:
‘Eric Powell was a man of genius which showed itself in many fields. The world perhaps knew him best as an oarsman, the winner of the Diamond Sculls, but there are others who think of his distinction in the Flying Corps, and yet more to whom his wonderful talent as an artist made a stronger appeal. To watch the marvellous speed with which he transferred to paper the beauty which he saw with an unerring eye was a pleasure of which one never tired, and in later years he was developing an accuracy of detail and a variety of technique which seemed to hold the highest promise. Of what he did for drawing at Eton it is impossible to speak too highly; and his success as one of the most popular and best loved of house masters was so remarkable that it might have been grudged to anyone but him. Powell’s sister, Ellen, married fellow Olympian Harold Barker.’