Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part III)

Air Efficiency Award, G.VI.R., 1st issue (Fg. Off. C. H. Ball, R.A.F.V.R.), extremely fine £400-500

Clement Hayward Ball, who was born in May 1918, volunteered for the R.A.F.V.R. in June 1939 and commenced training as a Navigator at No. 11 A.O.N.S. at Hamble. Qualifying in the following year, he was posted to No. 223 Squadron in the Sudan, prior to joining No. 70 Squadron, a Wellington unit, in Egypt in November 1940. In the following month he participated in his first operational sortie, and between then and February 1942, he completed 60 such trips, mainly over Libya, Egypt and Greece, but the vast majority of them against Benghazi. In fact the same target was visited by the Squadron with such alarming regularity that it became known as the “Mail Run”, and, in due course, the inspiration for No. 70’s song, The Mail Run Melody, which was sung to the tune of Clementine. One verse in particular was pertinent to Flight Lieutenant Ball’s in-flight role:

‘Have you lost us, Navigator?
Come up here and have a look
Someone’s shot our starboard wing off
We’re all right then, that’s Tobruk.’

Between May 1942 and November 1944, Ball served as an instructor at various locations in the U.K. - and was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in early 1943 - but after attending a heavy bomber conversion course at the end of the latter year, he was posted to No. 46 (Uganda) Squadron, a Stirling unit, with whom he ended the War on assorted overseas transport duties. He was demobbed in December 1945. Ball subsequently entered the world of civil aviation and was variously employed as a Navigator by B.E.A., B.O.A.C. and Irish International Airways, notching up in excess of 19,000 flying hours by the time of his retirement in December 1973.

Sold with the recipient’s original R.A.F. Observer’s and Air Gunner’s Flying Log Book, covering the period of his training in November 1939 through to his final R.A.F. posting to No. 46 Squadron in December 1945, including some 60 operations with No. 70 Squadron between December 1940 and February 1942, and a few early flights with B.O.A.C. and B.E.A. in 1946-47; together with Ministry of Aviation Flying Log Books (3), various types, between them covering the continuous period of August 1946 through to November 1973, incorporating a huge range of international flights and many aircraft types, and finally ending with cross-Atlantic runs in Boeing 707s of Aer Linte; the lid of the original card forwarding box for his 1939-45 awards, addressed to ‘F./Lt. C. H. Ball’ at Wanstead, London; and U.K. Ministry of Civil Aviation Flight Navigator’s Licence, dated 5 November 1949, in the full name of Clement Hayward Ball, with portrait photograph and several certificates of renewal up until October 1963, bindings worn, contents good, and a remarkable record of continuous service as a Navigator for nearly 35 years.