orders, decorations, campaign medals and militaria - Spink

orders, deCoratioNs, CampaigN medaLs aNd miLitaria
Captain William Thomas Price, C.B.E., M.C. (1895-1982), born Cheltenham;
educated at Christ’s College, London and Reading University; commissioned
Second Lieutenant, 13th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, 26.8.1915;
attached Royal Flying Corps and gained Royal Aero Club Certificate (No. 4121),
28.11.1916; confirmed and gazetted Flying Officer on the latter date; accompanied
48 (Fighter) Squadron (BF2b’s) as a ‘founder member’ to Bertangles, France,
8.3.1917; the squadron’s first patrol (flying F2a’s) was on the 5th April during the
Battle of Arras and, as a consequence of using defensive tactics unsuited to the
aircraft, it went disastrously; four of the six aircraft on patrol were shot down by
Jasta 11, including that of Captain W. Leefe-Robinson, V.C.; in the next eleven
days a further eight aircraft were lost before one or two pilots started to fly the twoseater
aircraft like a single-seater fighting scout; one of those pilots was Price who
drove down an enemy scout out of control over Douai, 6.4.1917; three days later
he destroyed an Albatros over Arras; working in tandem with another Bristol he
drove down out of control another Albatros over Vitry, 23.4.1917; two days later
he destroyed an enemy scout over Arras, before sharing another destroyed over
Vitry, 27.4.1917; on the 9th of May he destroyed two enemy aircraft, both over
the Vitry area, before both he and his Observer (Second Lieutenant C.G. Claye)
were wounded and forced down to a crash-landing by the great German Ace,
Lothar von Richthofen (brother of ‘The Red Baron’); Price was the von
Richthofen’s 22nd victory out of an eventual 40; despite his wounds Price managed
to safely land in British lines, north-east of Fampoux; the Combat Report taken by
Captain Wall in the Ambulance Train on the day of the action gives the following,
‘Lieutenant Price states that:
Whilst on Offensive Patrol over Vitry with a formation led by Lt. Holliday, he
observed an enemy Scout machine flying about 1,000 feet below. He dived to
engage the hostile machine and continued firing upon it until his gun stopped. On
recovering from the dive he found himself attacked by five enemy machines which
neither he nor his Observer had previously seen. Two of these fastened on to his
tail, and he was unable to shake them off even by the most rapid manoeuvring.
Finally he got into a spin from which he was able to recover only with extreme
difficulty. Upon straightening out he found himself only a few feet from the ground
with a hostile machine still after him. He was now compelled to land and he
pancaked his machine on to the ground, his undercarriage settling into a shell hole.
The enemy machine was lost to view.’ Price was presented with his M.C. by the
King at Buckingham Palace, 9.3.1918; after leaving the R.A.F. ‘he flew for a time
with a civilian aviation company, giving joyrides to holiday-makers in Blackpool.
His career-path changed dramatically when he became a Lecturer in Dairy
Husbandry at the Staffordshire Farm Institute from 1920 to 1922, before going on
to lecture on Estate Management at the Harper Agricultural College from 1922 to
1924.... In 1926, he was appointed Organiser of Agricultural Education, a position
he held until 1946, when he was made Principal of the Harper Adams Agricultural
College. In 1960, Price was awarded the C.B.E. for his contribution to British
agriculture, retiring two years later. Price worked for the BBC as an agricultural
correspondent, as well as writing books and articles on his particular expertise, the
breeding and care of pigs. (The Military Cross to Flying Personnel of Great Britain
and the Empire 1914-1919, H. Giblin and N. Franks, refer); resided in Leamington
Spa in later life.
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