Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second War C.B., C.B.E. group of eight awarded to Air Commodore T. Fawdry, Royal Air Force, late Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and Corporal, Royal Flying Corps

The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, C.B. (Military) Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, C.B.E. (Military) Commander’s 2nd type neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; 1914 Star, with clasp (776 Cpl. T. Fawdry. R.F.C.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Capt. T. Fawdry. R.A.F.) VM partially officially corrected; Defence and War Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf; Jubilee 1935, very fine and better (8) £1,800-£2,200

Provenance: Christie’s 1990; Wing Commander Bill Traynor Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, September 2007.

C.B. London Gazette 13 June 1946.

C.B.E. London Gazette 8 June 1944.

Thomas Fawdry was born in April 1891, the eldest son of A. Fawdry of Maidenhead, and was educated at Abingdon. Enlisting in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in July 1909, he purchased his discharge in July 1913 in order to join the newly established Royal Flying Corps, and served out in France as a Corporal, attached to H.Q., R.F.C. from 18 August 1914. Later that year, on 17 December, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, and it would appear he remained employed in that capacity until being appointed a Staff Captain in the Middle East on the strength of the Royal Air Force in April 1918. He was awarded the M.B.E. (London Gazette 3 June 1919 refers).

Between the Wars, Fawdry held a succession of appointments in the Stores and Equipment Branches of the Royal Air Force, including stints of service on the Staff in Iraq 1926-28 and in the Middle East 1933-36 (O.B.E.), and by the renewal of hostilities he was serving as a recently promoted Group Captain and C.O. of the R.A.F’s Maintenance Group. Advanced to Air Commodore in 1942, he transferred to the Staff of Bomber Command, and remained similarly employed until the end of the War, gaining a “mention” in addition to his C.B. and C.B.E.

Placed on the Retired List in June 1946, Fawdry settled at Upper Clatford, near Andover in Hampshire. He resided at Sackville Court Farmhouse, a few hundred yards from the All Saints Church where he was Treasurer and Churchwarden. Air Commodore Fawdry died at home, and was buried at All Saints, in July 1968.

Sold with a photographic image of recipient in uniform, and copied research.