Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The group of five miniature dress medals attributed to Captain E. Fowles, British South Africa Police, late Royal Flying Corps

Army Meritorious Service Medal, G.V.R., 1st issue; British War and Victory Medals; War Medal 1939-45; Permanent Forces of the Empire L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., mounted as worn in this order, very fine (5) £200-£300

Provenance: Sotheby’s 1996 (when sold alongside the full sized medals).

Ernest ‘Turk’ Fowles was born in Winkfield, Berkshire, in 1887, and attested for the Grenadier Guards on 25 August 1909. He transferred to the Royal Flying Corps as a Second Class Air Mechanic on 27 June 1912, and, following the outbreak of the Great War, was promoted Corporal on 24 September 1914, and Sergeant on 1 March 1915. Appointed Acting Warrant Officer on 1 January 1916, he was posted to France the following month, and served during the Great War on the Western Front from 13 February 1916 to 9 July 1917. For his services during the Great War in 1916 he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal (London Gazette 1 January 1917), and was advanced Flight Sergeant, Temporary Sergeant Major. Having transferred to the Royal Air Force upon the latter’s creation, he served again on the Western Front at the British Expeditionary Force Recruit Depot from 23 May 1918 until 15 February 1919, when he was appointed Sergeant Major (Drill Instructor) at Blandford on the Home Establishment. He was discharged on 24 August 1921.

Fowles subsequently served with the British South Africa Police in Mashonaland, Southern Rhodesia, for 14 years, and was awarded the Permanent Forces of the Empire Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in 1927 (Southern Rhodesia Gazette 21 October 1927). Transferring to the Permanent Staff Corps in 1933, he then spent a further 12 years with the Staff Corps before finally retiring with the rank of Captain in 1945. He died on 17 April 1971.

His obituary carries the following account of his time with the Royal Flying Corps:
‘In May 1912, Turk was one of the first applicants for transfer to the embryo Royal Flying Corps, military aviation in Britain up to then having been the responsibility of the 55th (Balloon) Company, Royal Engineers. Mr. Fowles joined No. 1 Squadron, then equipped with balloons, man-lifting kites, and four airships. In early 1913 he was sent to the Central Flying School at Upavon to join the select band that included virtually all the British air aces of the Great War and other notables such as Major Trenchard (who was to influence the future of not only the Royal Air Force but also the British Police Force in later years) and a gentleman named Winston Churchill, who was taught to fly at Upavon and also signed Turk’s navigation certificate.’

Sold with copied research.