Special Collections

Sold between 21 September & 27 June 2007

2 parts

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A Collection of Awards to the R.F.C. and R.A.F. formed by Wing Commander Bill Traynor

Wing Commander Bill Traynor, MA (Cantab.)

Lot

№ 152

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27 June 2007

Hammer Price:
£3,100

Five: Squadron Leader E. H. P. Jolly, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, late Indian Army Reserve of Officers and Royal Air Force, one of a handful of pilots to qualify for the General Service Medal 1918-62 for “S. Persia”

British War and Victory Medals
(Lieut., R.A.F.); General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, S. Persia (F./O., R.A.F.); Defence and War Medals, together with named card forwarding boxes from each award, and a related set of Great War period dress miniature medals (3), generally good very fine, the third rare (8) £1800-2200

Approximately 30 General Service Medals for “S. Persia” were awarded to Royal Air Force personnel, just five aircraft of No. 30 Squadron being present in the qualifying period November 1918 to June 1919.

Evelyn Hugh Parker Jolly was born in Ipswich in April 1886, the son of a local J.P., and was educated at Framlingham College and St. John’s College, Oxford. Then in 1908, having qualified in Law, he joined the Indian Civil Service in Bombay as an Assistant Collector, Land Revenue and General Administration, in addition to joining the Indian Army Reserve of Officers with an appointment as 2nd Lieutenant in the 116th Mahrattas.

In December 1916, however, he joined the Royal Flying Corps, qualifying as a Flying Officer (Observer) in May 1917 and as a pilot in the following year, and was posted to No. 31 Squadron in India.

Then in January 1919, Jolly was attached to No. 30 Squadron in Southern Persia, the war diary of 31st Wing documenting his subsequent movements in detail. Thus a trip down the Persian Gulf in H.M.S.
Lawrence to select potential airfields and, more notably, his part in a bombing raid by three R.E. 8s and a Martynside against Kaki on 20 February, the relevant report concluding:
‘Twenty-one direct hits were scored and 1,000 rounds of S.A.A. fired into ground targets. The machines remained over the village for more than an hour at about 1,000 feet.’ Of these hits, Jolly claimed six, with resultant damage to houses ‘and cattle’. Not mentioned in the report, but verified by accompanying photocopies, is the fact Jolly had to make a forced landing in a field on his way back from the raid - a few days earlier, the same aircraft had suffered similar engine trouble while transporting General Sir Douglas Haig to Shiraz. Jolly also participated in a strike against Yakh Nohbduj on 9 April, this time claiming one direct hit - ‘very bumpy, rendered accurate bombing difficult.’

Relinquishing his commission in the Royal Air Force in August 1919, Jolly returned to his career in the Indian Civil Service, and had risen to be a District and Sessions Judge by the time of his retirement in November 1934. Then in July 1940, he applied for a commission in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and was duly appointed a Pilot Officer in the Administration and General Duties Branch. And he served in a similar capacity until retiring in the rank of Squadron Leader in January 1946.

Sold with the recipient’s original forwarding letters for his British War & Victory Medals, dated 15 November 1922, and for his General Service Medal and “S. Persia” clasp, this dated 22 March 1926 (‘Granted to you under Air Ministry Weekly Order 527/1923’).