The Roy Bartlett Collection of Awards to the R.N.A.S., R.F.C. and R.A.F.

Three: Sergeant Mechanic A. J. Gabe, Royal Air Force, late Imperial Yeomanry and Royal Navy Air Service, who served in a Kite Balloon Section in the Mediterranean in 1916

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 5 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (21502 Tpr., 78th Coy. Imp. Yeo.); British War and Victory Medals (F. 6367 P.O.M., R.N.A.S.), very fine and better (3) £180-220

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Roy Bartlett Collection of Awards to the R.N.A.S., R.F.C. and R.A.F..

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Archibald Jones Gabe was born in Glamorganshire in August 1882 and served in the 78th (Rough Riders) Company, Imperial Yeomanry out in South Africa - his subsequent Great War service record notes that he departed the Imperial Yeomanry in August 1901, thus bringing into question his entitlement to the “South Africa 1902” clasp. Be that as it may, he enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service in the rate of Air Mechanic 1st Class in July 1915 and was embarked for Malta in January 1916, where he served in the Kite Balloon Section until transferring to Egypt that June. He had, in the interim, been advanced to Leading Mechanic. It is probable that Gabe remained similarly employed in his postings to Egypt and Aden 1916-17, which period witnessed his advancement to Petty Officer Mechanic, and he was demobilised in June 1919, having been re-mustered as a Sergeant Mechanic on the strength of the newly etablished R.A.F. in April 1918.