Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Flight Sergeant H. E. Atkins, Royal Air Force, late Machine Gun Corps and Royal Flying Corps

British War and Victory Medals (57910 F. Sgt., R.A.F.); Russia, Medal of Zeal, Nicholas II, small silver, on St. Anne riband, mounted as worn, contact marks, generally good very fine and rare (3) £250-300

Henry Ernest Atkins, who was born in Birmingham in 1876, originally enlisted in the Army in May 1915, aged 39 years, and served in France with the Machine Gun Corps from February 1916 until January 1917, including a period in hospital in October 1916, suffering from myalgia. Returning to the U.K. to effect his transfer to the Royal Flying Corps in the latter month, he was appointed a Flight Sergeant and went to France in April 1917. Posted back home again in January 1919, he was briefly transferred to No. 62 Wing before joining No. 18 Wing in Constantinople in August 1919, which latter assignment presumably led to the award of his Russian Medal of Zeal - as is common with so many similar cases, the award is not confirmed on his service record or in the London Gazette. Atkins was discharged in April 1920.