Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Squadron Leader A. J. Croft-Cohen, Royal Air Force, late Lieutenant-Commander, Royal Navy, who was twice Mentioned in Despatches during the Second World War

1914-15 Star (Mid. A. J. Croft-Cohen. R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. A. J. Croft-Cohen. R.N.); Defence and War Medals 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf, nearly extremely fine (5) £240-£280

Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, December 2008.

Adolphus John Croft-Cohen was born Adolphus John Cohen in London on 18 January 1897, the son of Adolphus Henry Cohen, a diamond merchant of Union Bank Buildings, Holborn Circus, London. He entered the Royal Naval College Dartmouth December 1911 and enlisted in the Royal Navy in January 1912, changing his surname from Cohen to Croft-Cohen. With the onset of the Great War he was posted as a Midshipman on the dreadnought battleship Erin, in which capacity he served at the battle of Jutland. He served aboard the ship until May 1917, being advanced to Acting Sub-Lieutenant in July 1916 and Sub-Lieutenant in December 1916. He was posted to Dolphin, May-July 1917 for training as a Submarine officer, but this role was curtailed through the contraction of a disease. After service on the destroyer Waveney, August 1917-March 1918, he was posted to the depot ship Arrogant for ‘Special Service’, his papers state he was in command of Coastal Motor Boat 72A in July 1918. Further clues to his ‘special service’ may be gleaned from his papers which state that he was suffering from gas poisoning in April/May 1918. Ranked as Acting-Lieutenant in March 1918, he was placed on the Retired List on 30 March 1919, as ‘Medically unfit’. In 1926 he was promoted to Lieutenant-Commander on the Retired List.

On 1 September 1939 he was commissioned into the Royal Air Force as a Flight Lieutenant in the ‘Accounts Branch’ and was advanced to Temporary Squadron Leader in September 1940. As such he was twice Mentioned in Despatches during the course of the war (London Gazettes 2 June 1943 and 8 June 1944). The fact that he was twice mentioned whilst in the ‘Accounts Branch’, his ‘special service’ during the Great War, and his fluency in French suggests a possibly more exotic service. He died in Lowestoft, Suffolk, on 20 April 1968.

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