The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection

A good Great War and Second World War campaign group of nine awarded to Captain T. O. Bulteel, Royal Navy, whose career spanned from Jutland to the crucial Malta convoys of 1942-43, via lengthy spells as a Naval airman on attachment to the R.A.F. in the 1920s and 30s: rising to the command of the aircraft carriers Argus and Furious, he nursed the latter back to port after she was severely damaged in “Operation Pedestal”


1914-15 Star (Mid. T. O. Bulteel, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (S. Lt. T. O. Bulteel, R.N.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, M.I.D. oak leaf; Coronation 1937, the first three mounted as worn on frayed ribands, generally very fine or better (9) £400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection.

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Tom Oliver Bulteel was born in Old Windsor, Berkshire in February 1899 and entered Britannia as a Cadet in January 1912.

Appointed a Midshipman in the battleship H.M.S. Russell in August 1914, he was present at the bombardment of Zeebrugge that November, and afterwards in the Dardanelles in support of the Gallipoli operations. Returning to the U.K. in late 1915, he next joined the battleship King Edward VII, a short-lived appointment in view of her demise as a result of running into a minefield off Cape Wrath in January 1916, though he was among the survivors. A month later he joined the battleship Orion, a component of the 2nd Battle Squadron, Grand Fleet, and in that capacity was present at Jutland, in which battle his ship inflicted significant damage on the Margraf and Lutzow, and herself survived being straddled on three occasions. Advanced to Sub. Lieutenant in July 1917, Bulteel next joined the cruiser Bristol, serving in the Mediterranean Fleet until the War’s end.

Confirmed in the rank of Lieutenant in March 1920, he applied successfully for a transfer to the Naval Wing of the Royal Air Force in late 1924, and was posted to No. 1 Flying School at Netherton. Further training having been undertaken in No. 406 Fast Fighter Flight, and his final deck landing having been accomplished on the Furious, he was awarded his “Wings”. And remaining on attachment to the R.A.F. over the next four years, he was advanced to Lieutenant-Commander in March 1928, when he assumed command of 401 Flight in the carrier Argus, followed by command of 403 Flight in the Hermes and, in October 1930, of the Fleet Air Arms Section at Portsmouth. Later still, with regular seagoing duties in the interim, he retained his links to aviation with appointments as C.O. 403 Flight in the Courageous in 1932-33, when he held the dual rank of Squadron Leader, and as Wing Commander Flying at the R.A.F. Station in 1937, in which latter year he led a flight in the Fleet Review and was awarded the Coronation Medal.

Advanced to Captain in June 1938, Bulteel was serving as C.O. of Daedalus at Lee-on-Solent on the renewal of hostilities, but in April 1941 he returned to sea as C.O. of the carrier Argus, and remained actively engaged in that capacity until the end of the year, in which period she carried out several vital aircraft delivery operations in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, including “Operation Perpetual” to Malta. Next ordered to the U.S.A to oversee the refit of the carrier Furious, he brought her back to the U.K. in April 1942, prior to sailing for the Mediterranean, and in August of that year she participated in Malta convoy “Operation Pedestal”, sustaining heavy damage when torpedoed on the 12th - at one stage listing heavily to starboard, she was escorted by several destroyers to Gibraltar, while her aircraft were flown off to Malta.

Repairs completed, the Furious was ordered to join the Central Task Force covering the landings at Oran in North Africa in November, her aircraft attacking Vichy French airfields at great cost to the enemy, work that would ultimately lead to Bulteel being mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 4 May 1943 refers), though, alas, posthumously, for he had suddenly been taken ill in February of the latter year and died of peritonitis. He is buried in the Royal Navy Cemetery at Lyness.

HMS Furious was not torpedoed during the course of operation Pedestal