Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Second War ‘North-West Europe operations’ O.B.E. group of eight awarded to Commander (E.) G. P. Blake, Royal Navy, a Fleet Air Arm pilot who served ashore in 1944 as a Forward Air Control Officer and thence in support of carrier operations off Korea - a distinguished career that was tragically curtailed in early 1953 when his Sea Vampire crashed into the ground near the R.N.A.S. Culdrose

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, silver-gilt; 1939-45 Star; Pacific Star; France and Germany Star, 1 clasp, Atlantic; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Korea 1950-53 (Cdr. (E.) G. P. Blake O.B.E. R.N.); U.N. Korea 1950-54, all but the last two mounted as worn, good very fine or better (8) £600-£800

O.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1945: ‘For services in the Allied Expeditionary Air Force.’

George Peter Blake, who was born in South Africa in February 1914, entered the R.N.C. Dartmouth in August 1930 and the R.N.E.C. Keyham in January 1935, and was confirmed in the rank of Sub. Lieutenant (E.) in September 1938. Having then seen active service in destroyers, he undertook pilot training in the Fleet Air Arm and received his first posting in April 1941, when he joined No. 881 Squadron. In the following year he took up an appointment at R.N.A.S. Yeovilton, but his career took on a more operational footing with his appointment to the staff of the Flag Officer Naval Air Stations (F.O.N.A.S.) in the summer of 1944, in which role he was embarked for France as a Forward Air Control Officer for the Allied Expeditionary Air Force, a spell of active service that was rewarded by his O.B.E. in January 1945.

Then in May of the latter year, he was ordered to the Far East, where he joined the carrier Indomitable, in which capacity he remained actively employed until the Japanese surrender, including operations against enemy suicide boats off Hong Kong in August 1945 and, subject to the exact date of his joining the ship, in the operations against the Ishigaki and Miyako Islands, during the course of which Indomitable was struck by a kamikaze aircraft just below her flight deck.

Having then returned to the U.K. and been employed at R.N.A.S. St. Merryn, Blake was embarked in the carrier Unicorn on the outbreak of hostilities in Korea, and he served as C.O. to the Air Engineering Department at Sembawang, Singapore - later renamed H.M.S. Simbang - until late 1952. As related in a letter written by a fellow Naval officer, he also made visits to forward areas, including one to the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders at Imjin River en route to visiting No. 77 (S.A.A.F.) Squadron, on which occasion he wore ‘his naval brass hat, a submarine sweater, an Army parka and boots, plus his own blue trousers - unconventional but very practical in snow and mud’.

Returning to the U.K. in early 1953, Blake joined R.N.A.S. Culdrose, and it was in this capacity that he was killed in a flying accident on 5 February, when his Sea Vampire crashed at high speed among houses at Trevarrick, St. Austell, some witnesses stating that it had just gone through the sound barrier. Be that as it may, there were no civilian casualties, even though the point of impact left a crater 20 feet deep and 30 feet wide.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including Admiralty named condolence slip in respect of his Korea Medals and a fine array of career photographs.