Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second War ‘Home Guard’ O.B.E and Great War ‘Italian Theatre’ A.F.C. and Al Valore Militare group of seven awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel R. J. J. Hope-Vere, Royal Air Force, late Royal Naval Air Service, a Seaplane Pilot with No 66 Wing in the Adriatic theatre in 1918

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge; Air Force Cross, G.V.R.; 1914-15 Star (Sq. Cr. R. J. J. Hope-Vere. R.N.A.S.); British War and Victory Medals (Lt. Col. R. J. J. Hope-Vere. R.A.F.); Defence Medal; Italy, Al Valore Militare, silver (R. I. J. Hope-Vere Basso Adriatico 1918) note second initial, mounted as worn, nearly extremely fine and rare (7) £2,600-£3,000

O.B.E. London Gazette 15 December 1944: ‘Lieutenant-Colonel, Home Guard (Dumfries)’.

A.F.C. London Gazette 1 January 1919.

M.I.D. London Gazette 20 July 1917 and 1 May 1918.

Al Valore Militare (Silver) London Gazette 2 November 1918. An approximate translation of the citation reads: ‘Hardy aeroplane pilot performed numerous operations on the most equipped enemy bases of the Lower Adriatic achieving very effective results in every mission despite the violent enemy reaction that sometimes caused losses of material and personnel.’

Ralph Jean James Hope-Vere was born on 13 December 1887, son of Lieutenant-Colonel James Charles Hope-Vere and Marie E. F. Guillemin. He was appointed Probationary Flight Sub Lieutenant in the Royal Navy on 13 August 1914, in ‘H.M.S. “Pembroke” additional for course of flying (at private school)’. He accordingly attended the Grahame-White School of Flying at Hendon and gained his Royal Aero Pilot Certificate (No. 900) on 9 September 1914. He was based at Felixtowe from 13 August 1914, and it was noted that ‘Since joining the R.N.A.S. [he has] specialised in large boats since October 1914’. In February 1917 he was posted to the newly established seaplane station at Port Mellon in Cornwall, where he was an Acting Squadron Commander, in command of a squadron of ‘Porte Boats’. He transferred to the seaplane station Scillies in January 1918, and the following month went out to Italy to join No. 66 Wing, Adriatic Group, where he remained until the end of the war. He married Esmée Crabbe, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel H. Crabbe, on 18 October 1928, and lived at Blackwood, Lanarkshire, where he served on the Dumfries-shire County Council and served in the Home Guard during the Second World War. Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Vere-Hope died on 12 October 1959, aged 71.

Sold with the following original documents: Royal Aero Pilot Certificate (No. 900), dated 9 September 1914, and accompanying Royal Aero Club Competitor’s Permit for 1914; Commission as Probationary Flight Sub Lieutenant, 13 August 1914; Commission as Acting Flight Commander, 24 January 1916; Commission (Temporary) as Major Royal Air Force from 1 April 1918, dated 1 December 1918; Provisional award certificate for Al Valore Militare from ‘Comando in Capo dell’Armata Navale e del Basso Adriatico’, dated Brindisi, 26 September 1918, with forwarding letter of congratulations from Officer Commanding No. 66 Wing R.A.F., dated 3 October 1918; Official certificate of award for Al Valore Militare from the ‘Ministero della Marina’, dated Rome, 10 April 1919; Air Ministry letter placing him on the Unemployed List w.e.f. 15 July 1919, retaining rank of Lieutenant-Colonel; various photographs including two of seaplanes and another two of a crashed seaplane.