Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The extremely well-documented and scarce G.S.M. 1918-62 with Northern Kurdistan clasp awarded to Leading Aircraftman T. F. Smith, 31 Squadron, Royal Air Force, who was killed as a result of the Quetta Earthquake, 31 May 1935

General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Northern Kurdistan (511473. A.C.2. T. F. Smith. R.A.F.) mounted for display purposes, good very fine (lot) £1,200-£1,600

Approximately 65 officers and 280 airmen were awarded the ‘Northern Kurdistan’ clasp.

Thomas Frederick Smith was born in Bawtry, Yorkshire, in December 1908. His parents died in 1926 and 1932 respectively, and henceforth he resided with his brother and an aunt at 10 The Square, Halifax. Smith joined the Royal Air Force as an Aircrafthand in October 1929, and after training at Uxbridge and Henlow was posted to Iraq where he was allocated to 70 Squadron at Hinaidi in November 1930. The R.A.F. policy at that time was to serve five years overseas by splitting the time between Iraq and India, and on 20 March 1934 Smith found himself serving with 31 Squadron at Quetta. At this station he remustered to the trade of Armourer and passed a trade test board leading to him being reclassified as Leading Aircraftman.

The posting to Quetta was to prove fatal when, on 31 May 1935, the city was completely destroyed by one of the world’s worst ever earthquakes, a disaster which resulted in some 35,000 casualties. The nearby R.A.F. Station was not spared - and L.A.C. Smith was one of 52 British N.C.O.s and airmen killed in the disaster; 126 men were also injured. Smith’s Squadron suffered 23 killed, and the Commanding Officer of No. 3 Indian Wing in his official report stated that parts of the station - especially the airmen’s accommodation - were completely wiped out. Only 3 of the 25 aircraft on the station (5 and 31 Squadrons) were serviceable. It was the worst disaster in the peacetime history of the Service.

Leading Aircraftman Smith, due to the sheer scale of the disaster, was not afforded a burial in a coffin but instead had to buried in a shroud provided by the British Military Hospital. He is buried in the British Cemetery at Quetta, and commemorated on the Memorial Tablet for the R.A.F. victims of the Quetta Earthquake at R.A.F. Halton. Smith’s G.S.M. (only issued in February 1935) and his sports medals were recovered from the wreckage of the barracks and forwarded to his next of kin.

Sold with the following impressive archive of related and original material: 18 Sport Prize Medals, all named to recipient, for Athletics, Boxing, Hockey and Shooting from various postings in India and Iraq; Certificate of Service; telegram to recipient’s brother informing him of his death as a consequence of the Quetta Earthquake; letter of condolence written to recipient’s brother by the Commanding Officer of 31 Squadron, dated 3 July 1935; correspondence from the R.A.F. Record Office confirming the recipient’s death, and relaying details about his burial arrangements; letter from Wing Commander J. Slessor (later Knighted and Marshal of the Royal Air Force) to recipient’s aunt regarding financial contributions for a Memorial Tablet for the R.A.F. victims of the Quetta Earthquake, dated 6 March 1936; letter from the Reverend G. H. Collier, R.A.F. Halton, informing relatives of the unveiling of the memorial tablet for R.A.F. victims of the Quetta Earthquake at Halton; photograph of recipient in gym kit standing behind his various sporting medals; other ephemera and copied research.