orders, decorations, campaign medals and militaria - Spink

481
A Great War Pair to Lieutenant J.W. Pryor, South
Lancashire Regiment and Royal Flying Corps,
Wounded in Action on the Somme, 9.7.1916,
Where His Life Was Saved by Wearing a Steel
Waistcoat; He Was Taken P.O.W., 16.6.1918,
Serving On His 13th Operation as an R.A.F.
Observer
British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. J.W. Pryor.
R.A.F.), minor edge bruise to last, otherwise very fine or
better (2)
£240-280
Lieutenant James William Pryor (1896-1942); educated at
Haileybury, where he was a Lance Corporal in the O.T.C.; he
began his studies at Jesus College, Cambridge, August 1914;
was a member of the University O.T.C. prior to being
commissioned Second Lieutenant, South Lancashire
Regiment, 23.9.1914; served with the 10th (Reserve)
Battalion in the UK before joining the 8th (Service) Battalion
in France, 29.5.1916; Pryor’s battalion as part of 75 Brigade,
25th Division, served during the first Battle of Albert, from
3.7.1916; the 8th Battalion were in action opposite Ovillers
on the Somme, and the Regimental History Ich Dien gives
the following for 9.7.1916, ‘The enemy’s artillery had now
ranged on the positions held and the companies were
subjected to intense shelling. Second Lieutenant J.W. Pryor
and several men of “A” Company were buried by one shell
burst and had to be dug out; the men were dead, but Pryor
was wearing a steel waistcoat under his uniform jacket which
kept his lungs from injury and so saved his life’; Pryor was
evacuated to a casualty clearing station suffering from
shellshock and other injuries; returning to the UK he was not
passed fully fit for service until December 1916; joining the
3rd Battalion he returned to France, February 1917; he
rejoined the 8th Battalion two months later, in time to take
part in the advance on the Messine Ridge, 6.6.1917;
Lieutenant 1.7.1917; transferred to the Royal Flying Corps,
October 1917, and trained as an Observer; posted to the
newly formed 148 Squadron (F.E. 2b’s), Andover, February
1918; went with the squadron to Auchel, France, April 1918,
where it was employed as a night bomber squadron; to
combat the German Spring Offensive the squadron was
immediately engaged in attacks on enemy targets behind the
lines; initially crewed with Lieutenant B.A.S. Lewin, Pryor
was involved in night operations over targets including:
Rumbeke Aerodrome; Lille; and Carvin and Le Cateau
Railway Stations; carrying out his 13th operation, this time
with Second Lieutenant C.E. Wharton, he was reported as
missing in action, 16.6.1918; the aircraft was last seen
crossing enemy lines heading for Douai at 10pm; Pryor was
made Prisoner of War, and transferred by the Germans from
Lille to a camp at Karlsruhe; he was repatriated 13.12.1918;
after the war he was commissioned into the I.A.R.O. and saw
service attached to the 1/131st U.P. Regiment; in later life
he resided in Market Harborough.
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482
Pair: Lieutenant F.L. Wills, Royal Naval Air Service
and Royal Air Force
British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. F.L. Wills.
R.A.F.), very fine, with the recipient’s related
miniature awards (2)
£80-120
Lieutenant Francis Lewis Mills born 1893; a native of
Balham, London; employed as an Architect and Surveyor
prior to the Great War; commissioned Temporary
Probationary Observer Officer, Royal Naval Air Service,
31.5.1917; after training at R.N.A.S. Eastchurch he was
posted as an Observer to R.N.A.S. Yarmouth, 8.10.1917;
tasked with home defence he flew on a variety of aircraft,
including in D.H.9 D1655 with Flight Commander E.
Cadbury, on an anti-zeppelin raid, 12/13.4.1918; the latter
was a night attack carried out by 5 zeppelins; discharged April
1919
483
A Great War Pair to ‘Fighter Ace’ Lieutenant C.E.
‘Worthy’ Worthington, 87 Squadron, Royal Air
Force, Who Claimed 5 Victories in His Dolphin
“Muddles”, May-October 1918
British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. C.E.
Worthington. R.A.F.), generally very fine (2)
£400-500
Lieutenant Charles Edward ‘Worthy’ Worthington, born
February 1897, a native of Leicester. Pre-war he had received
part of his education at Heidelberg College, in Germany, and
spoke fluent German. A law student, Worthington joined the
Artist’s Rifles OTC as a Private (then Lance Corporal) in
December 1915, prior to joining the Royal Flying Corps in
September 1916. Upon learning to fly, he served with a
number of reserve and training units prior to going to 87
Squadron just before his 21st birthday. Worthington was a
stalwart of the unit, scoring evenly during the last year of the
war, and often acting as Deputy Flight Commander. His
fifth, and final, claim came on 4th October, when he shared
in the destruction of a Fokker DVII with his Flight
Commander, Captain Hollinghurst; posted as a Pilot to 87
Squadron (Dolphins) at the start of 1918, he went with the
squadron to France in April; he recorded his first enemy
aircraft destroyed on the 16th May in the plane he christened
“Muddles”, and followed that up with an Albatros DV forced
down out of control, 14.8.1918, ‘whilst on special patrol I
saw 3 Albatros apparently getting height at 9,000 feet over
Nesle. I dived on the rear E.A. from the sun and got in a
good burst at close range. I observed the pilot to collapse and
the E.A. then went down in a vertical dive. I was unable to
wait to see it crash as a large formation of E.A. appeared
above me’; he shared in destroying a Fokker DVII over Velu
Wood, 25.8.1918, following it up five days later with the
same type of aircraft in the same area, ‘I dived on a formation
of E.A. with Capt. Larkin. Selecting one of the E.A. I fired
about 100 rounds into it at close range. E.A. then half rolled
and went down in a spin emitting thick clouds of black
smoke. I climbed away west and then attacked another E.A.,
firing about 50 rounds at blank range (I had to turn to avoid
crashing into him) E.A. then went down in a fast spin. I saw
this machine to within about 4,000 feet of the ground still
spinning’; his final claim was a shared destroyed 4.10.1918
(see quote above); discharged March 1919