Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The mounted group of fifteen miniature dress medals attributed to Air Marshal Sir Thomas Williams, K.C.B., O.B.E., M.C., D.F.C., Royal Air Force, who became a fighter ace in No. 65 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, in 1918, Order of the Bath, Military Division, gilt and enamel; Order of the British Empire, Military Division, type 2; Military Cross, G.VI.R.; Distinguished Flying Cross, G.V.R., with Bar; British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf; 1939-45 Star; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf; U.S.A. Legion of Merit, gilt and enamel; U.S.A. Distinguished Service Medal (Army); U.S.A. Air Medal; French Legion of Honour, with rosette, gilt and enamel; French Croix de Guerre, with palm, mounted entirely as worn, the G.VI.R. issue M.C. most likely resulting from later re-mounting and refurbishment at the end of the 1939-45 War, generally very fine and better (15) £400-500

Thomas Melling Williams, who was born in South Africa in September 1899, served in German East Africa in the 12th S.A. Infantry 1916-17 before gaining a commission - and his “Wings” - in the Royal Flying Corps in the latter year.

Posted to 65 Squadron, a Camel unit, in early 1918, he claimed his first victory, an Albatros DV south-west of Roulers, on 29 January. Two more followed in April, after successful combats over Froissy and Morlancourt, and another on 10 May, shared with other pilots of 65 Squadron after a dogfight north of Villers-Brettoneaux. As it transpired, May was to prove his most successful month, Williams further claiming two unidentified two-seaters and a Pfalz DIII over the Bois de Tailleux on the 28th. On 3 July he shared in another Pfalz DIII after a combat over Aubercourt and on 1 August he claimed his final victory, an unidentified two-seater, north of Entineham. Throughout the same period he also carried out numerous ground attack missions, one of his more unusual claims being an enemy train - he dropped two bombs from a low altitude, ‘breaking it in half’. He was awarded the M.C. and D.F.C. and next went out to North Russia, where he added a Bar to his D.F.C. in 1919, most probably for his numerous bombing strikes on Kronstadt.

Attached to the Fleet Air Arm between 1919-26, Williams was posted to Malta in 1926 and appointed Adjutant of Cambridge University Air Squadron in 1931. Having next attended the R.A.F. Staff College, and been advanced to Squadron Leader, he was serving at H.Q. 1 Group on the outbreak of hostilities in 1939 and immediately went to France with the Advanced Air Striking Force. On returning home in June 1940, he was appointed C.O. of R.A.F. Watton, prior to serving as S.A.S.O. in No. 2 Group and at Bomber Command, 1941-42. He subsequently served in a similar capacity to Air Marshal Peirce in Java in early 1942, before moving to India where he became A.O.C. Bengal in 1943 and Deputy Commander, H.Q. Eastern Air Command (Air Command South-East Asia) in 1944. Williams ended the War as Chief of Air Staff (Operations), in which capacity he remained employed until 1947, when he became Commandant of the R.A.F. Staff College. His final appointment was as Inspector-General of the R.A.F. 1951-52, following service as A.O.C.-in-C. B.A.F.O., Germany 1948-51. Having been appointed O.B.E. in 1941, and C.B. in 1944, he was advanced to K.C.B. in 1950. The Air Marshal died in June 1956.

Sold with the recipient’s original R.A.F. Pilot’s Flying Log Book (Form 414), covering the period August 1928 to May 1931, the outer cover inscribed, ‘T. M. Williams, Flight Lieutenant’ and ‘Book No. 4’; and R.A.F. Pilot’s Flying Log Book (Form 414), covering the period October 1931 to June 1937, the outer cover again inscribed with his name and rank; together with an Army Book 425 Pilot’s Flying Log Book, covering the period September 1917 to December 1921, with pasted-down M.C. and D.F.C. newspaper announcements to inside front cover and handwritten “career summary” on the first page, last three pages and inside back cover, the only official endorsement and stamp being from the O.C., No. 5 Squadron on 23 December 1921, thereby suggesting that the remaining entries are a faithful transcript of his original flying log book, presumably lost on his assignment to North Russia, or shortly therafter.