Orders, Decorations and Medals

An important Great War M.C., D.F.C. group of six awarded to Group Captain E. C. Emmett, Royal Air Force, a pioneer pilot and founding member of the South African Aviation Corps

Military Cross, G.V.R.; Distinguished Flying Cross, G.V.R.; 1914-15 Star (Lt., S.A. Aviatn C.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. (Capt., R.A.F.); Coronation 1937, mounted as worn, nearly extremely fine (6)

M.C. London Gazette 1 February 1917. General citation but almost certainly awarded for good work in East Africa with No. 26 Squadron.

D.F.C. London Gazette 8 February 1918. Capt. (A/Major) Edwin Cheere Emmett, M.C. (South African Defence Force). (Egypt) ‘During the late operations this officer has been distinguished for gallantry and devotion to duty. Before an attack he took a series of photographs of the enemy’s lines - a service that entailed considerable risk, as he was compelled to fly at a very low altitude in the face of heavy machine-gun fire.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 30 June 1916 (East Africa), and March 1919 (Egypt).

Edwin Cheere Emmett was born on 5 October 1890, and was one of the small band of officers selected to form the nucleus of the South African Aviation Corps when the decision was taken by the Union to set up a fling unit before the outbreak of the Great War. The pioneers of South African military aviation were ten young men who learned to fly in a primitive pusher type biplane at an airfield near Kimberley in 1913, seven years before the South African Air Force came into being, on 1 February 1920. Hundreds of applications were received after the Government called for candidates as aviation officers in a notice published in a Government Gazette of 10 May 1913. From them the first ten pupils, including Emmett, were selected to undergo initial flying training at Compton Paterson’s Aviation School at Alexanderfontein, six miles east of Kimberley. Here, the ten intrepid airmen received instruction on a Paterson Biplane and, on 22 April 1914, the Government Gazette announced that six of them had been appointed as probationary Lieutenants in the South African Aviation Corps of the active Citizen Corps.

Emmett was one of these original six who were then sent to England to complete their flying training. He took his pilot licence flying a Maurice Farman aircraft at Upavon on 9 July, 1914, Royal Aero Club No. 832, and on the outbreak of war was attached to No. 3 Squadron. Whilst some of his compatriot’s proceeded for a short period of active service to France, Lieutenants Emmett and Basil Turner were sent back to South Africa to recruit ground personnel for the South African unit. Aircraft and other equipment finally arrived at Walvis Bay in March 1915, and the South African Aviation Corps went into action in the campaign in German South West Africa. The appearance of their Henry Farman aircraft had a dramatic effect on the progress of the campaign and General Botha, who had previously depended on mounted men for reconnaissance work and who was never sure where the Germans were, declared, ‘Now I can see for hundreds of miles.’

With the campaign in German South West Africa over, the South African Aviation Corps was demobilised at Cape Town on 31 July 1915. However, the old Corps was remobilised during August and transferred to the U.K., where it eventually re-emerged as No. 26 (South African) Squadron, Royal Flying Corps. The record book shows Emmett re-joining his old comrades in England on 7 October 1915. Though the new unit embarked again for South Africa in December 1915, Emmett was not with them, having already departed on the staff of General Sir H. Smith-Dorrien. He re-joined quickly, however, and is noted as having taken part in bombing operations in East Africa during February 1916. Squadron records reveal that Emmett flew for nine months in East Africa and that he returned to England from Dar-es-Salaam, via South Africa, in December 1916. He then proceeded on 3 months leave on medical grounds, which makes it all the more certain that his Military Cross, Gazetted in February 1917, can only have been in recognition of his service in East Africa.

In November 1917, Emmett was serving with the School of Aerial Gunnery at Heliopolis as a Flight Commander and, in early 1918, was transferred to an operational squadron serving in Egypt. He was commissioned Captain, Royal Air Force (Overseas Contingent serving with the R.A.F.) on 1 April 1918 and was made acting Major on 13 November 1918. He was selected for a permanent commission in the post-war R.A.F. and was promoted to Squadron Leader in 1928, commanding No. 19 Squadron at Duxford, to Wing Commander in 1935, and to Group Captain in 1938. He retired from the R.A.F. in October 1943 but was recalled for duty until 28 March 1945.