The Collection of British Orders, Decorations and Medals formed by the late Fred Rockwood

A good Great War A.F.C. group of eight awarded to Major F. W. Hartridge, Royal Army Service Corps, late Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force, who flew operationally in F.E. 8s of No. 41 Squadron in the summer of 1917, up until being shot down and wounded by artillery fire

Air Force Cross, G.V.R., the reverse privately engraved ‘Capt. F. W. Hartridge’; 1914-15 Star (2 Lieut. F. W. Hartridge, A.S.C.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. F. W. Hartridge, R.F.C.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, very fine and better (8) £1600-1800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of British Orders, Decorations and Medals formed by the late Fred Rockwood.

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A.F.C. London Gazette 3 June 1919.

Frederick William “Freddie” Hartridge was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Service Corps direct from the R.M.C. Sandhurst in March 1915. Having then witnessed active service and been advanced to Lieutenant, he was seconded to the Royal Flying Corps and qualified as a pilot.

Appointed a Flight Commander in the temporary rank of Captain in April 1917, he was posted to No. 41 Squadron in France, and flew a number of sorties in the unit’s F.E. 8s that summer, a period encompassing at least two or three combats. But he was wounded and shot down by artillery fire on 19 June and, according to a family source, had to make his way across No Man’s Land, bootless. Back on the Home Establishment, he was awarded his A.F.C. in respect of services as a senior instructor at No. 1 Training School.

Hartridge resigned his commission in August 1919, but remained on the R.A.F. Reserve of Officers and was an active member of the Auxiliary Air Force in the early 1930s, up until a serious flying accident in August 1933, when he was serving as a Flight Lieutenant in No. 504 Squadron - his Hawker-Horsley crashed onto a hangar and burst into flames, injuring both him and his Observer.

Recalled by the Royal Army Service Corps in the 1939-45 War, he served with the B.E.F. at the time of Dunkirk and afterwards as Welfare Officer on the trans-Atlantic run. He died in July 1972; sold with a file of research, including copied service record.