Orders, Decorations and Medals Including five Special Collections

A Great War D.S.O. group of six awarded to Squadron Leader T. W. Lloyd, Intelligence Officer to 617 'Dambuster' Squadron, late Liverpool Regiment, killed in a flying accident in February 1944

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R.; 1914-15 Star, name erased; British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Major); Defence & War Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf; Order of St Sava, 5th class breast badge, silver and enamels, minor enamel damage, otherwise good very fine (6) £1400-1600

D.S.O. London Gazette 3 June, 1918: ‘For distinguished services rendered with the British Forces on the Mediterranean Line of Communications.' Captain (Acting Major) T. W. Lloyd, Liverpool Regt., Special Reserve, Employed Royal Engineers. Lloyd's is the only award under this Gazette heading.

M.I.D. London Gazette 15 August, 1917, 7 October 1918, 1 January 1943, and 8 June 1944.

Thomas Williams Lloyd served with the 4th Battalion, King's Liverpool Regiment, in France from March 1915, where he was wounded (N.B. also entitled to 1914-15 Star). He was Adjutant to a unit of 2,000 Royal Engineers at Liphook for six months before he joined the mission that evacuated the Serbian Army from Albania to Salonika. He then spent a year in Mesopotamia as personal assistant to General Grey, who ran river transport, and worked out the scheme on which the advance to Baghdad was based. Towards the end of the war he was transferred to Italy for service in transportation and, after the armistice, was one of a mission of three officers sent by the War Office to report on communications in Hungary and the Adriatic Ports.

During World War II, 'Tommy' Lloyd was Intelligence Office with 617 Dambuster Squadron, where his main duty was to de-brief the crews after their bombing missions, most notably those that returned from the dams raids in May 1943. He was killed in a flying accident on 13 February 1944.

The following is extracted from a letter of condolence from Wing Commander Cheshire, commanding 617 Squadron, to Mrs. Lloyd: 'Your husband was killed while flying from Ford, in Sussex, back to this Station. He had been down there with the Squadron, as was his usual custom, and having finished his work down there, was on his way back with us. The pilot was a Canadian called Suggitt, an experienced Captain with 64 operations to his credit. I regret to say that they crashed into a hill while flying in cloud. The whole crew died instantly except Suggitt, who, although unconscious, remained alive for two days. Your husband had been with this Squadron ever since it first formed, and wherever the Squadron went, he went too. He looked after us not only as an Intelligence Officer, but also as a friend, and I don't think that any loss could mean more to us than his. I know there is little I can say that will help you or ease your burden, but I would at least like to tell you something of the influence that Tommy had on all of us. He was somehow a man to whom you could always turn in trouble, and a man who always did so much to make our life happier and more comfortable.' Lloyd's death is also recounted by Paul Brickhill in his book The Dam Busters.

The lot is sold with the following original documents: Commission documents as 2nd Lieutenant, 4th Bn. The King's (Liverpool Regiment), dated 5 September 1914, and as Pilot Officer, R.A.F.V.R., dated 17 September 1940; Warrant and statute booklet for the D.S.O., dated 3 June 1918; two M.I.D. certificates, dated 1 January 1943 and 8 June 1944, together with Air Ministry letters; Ministry of Pensions illuminated Memorial Scroll and Buckingham Palace condolence letter (Squadron Leader T. W. Lloyd, Royal Air Force); and a contemporary copy condolence letter from Wing Commander Cheshire.