AN EXCEPTIONAL GREAT WAR VICTORIA CROSS FETCHES HAMMER PRICE OF £200,000

An exceptional posthumous Victoria Cross from the Great War that was presented to 44-year-old Lieutenant-Commander Charles Henry Cowley of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, who was known as the “Pirate of Basra” sold for a hammer price of £200,000 at Noonans Mayfair on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. It was sold to private collector of British gallantry awards.

Prior to the sale, Nimrod Dix, Deputy Chairman of Noonans and Director of the Medal Department commented: “Cowley, who had been born in Baghdad, served on steamships up and down the Tigris and Euphrates rivers pre-hostilities, like his Irish-born father who did a similar job. Cowley Jnr mastered Arabic and made many local friends, so was ideally suited to serve as a river-pilot, interpreter, and intelligence agent for the British. Therefore, it was a small wonder then that his Turkish captors murdered him after he was taken prisoner in a suicidal attempt to reinforce the Kut garrison in the Julnar, that had been carrying 270 tons of supplies, in April 1916.”

He continued: “18 months before he was murdered, Cowley was in command of the Mejidieh, and ordered from Basra to Baghdad to evacuate all British nationals who wished to leave. His command having then been formally requisitioned by the Royal Navy, he went on to play a critical role in carrying troops back and forth on the Euphrates and Tigris. His work came to the attention of the Turks, who sentenced him to death in absentia at a military court hearing held in Baghdad - and even sent him a message declaring him to be a ‘pirate’. Such accusations appealed to Cowley’s sense of humour and, far from being perturbed, he took to flying the ‘skull and cross-bones’ flag whenever he returned to Basra.”

The Victoria Cross was from the second part of the Collection of Naval Medals that belonged to the Late Jason Pilalas and fetched a hammer price of £200,000.

Elsewhere in the sale the unique Second War ‘London Blitz’ group comprising the George Cross; George Medal and O.B.E awarded to Acting Lieutenant-Commander Ernest Oliver ‘Mick’ Gidden of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, described as ‘the man who saved Charing Cross’ sold for a hammer price of £100,000 and was bought by a collector of George Medals in Canada. Only eight men ever have been awarded the combination of the G.C. and G.M.; the addition of the O.B.E. makes this a unique combination of awards

Gidden, who was born in Hampstead, was a master of mine disposal operations and the first man to be awarded both the George Cross and George Medal, his gallantry in dealing with a parachute mine on Hungerford Bridge, outside Charing Cross Station, in April 1941, was among the great epics of the war: in a six hour operation, in which he was unable to apply a safety device for much of that time, he had to resort to using a hammer and chisel.

After the war, he returned to civilian life, working for the family saddlery firm W. & H. Gidden of Mayfair, but he died suddenly, aged 51, in December 1961.