Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Captain E. V. Pugh, Royal Artillery, who was killed in action on 10 June 1944 whilst engaged in ‘Special Observer’ work with the Royal Air Force

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, good very fine (4) £400-£500

Eric Vincent Pugh was born in Aston, Birmingham, in 1912, and educated at the Worcester Royal Grammar School. Appointed to a commission as Second Lieutenant in the 51st Heavy Regiment, Royal Artillery 2 April 1940, a contemporary newspaper cutting states that ‘He served in France in the first campaign and took part in the evacuation from Dunkirk.’

Transferred for special service with the Royal Air Force, Pugh took his first training flight as passenger in a Tiger Moth at No. 1 Elementary Flight Training School on 11 June 1942. Rated ‘Average’ as a Pilot by the Chief Instructor at the De Havilland School of Flying (Hatfield), 7 August 1942, Pugh joined 652 Squadron in the autumn of 1942 and continued his training on Tiger Moth and Auster aircraft. Growing in experience, his Pilot’s Flying Log Book notes two deck landings aboard H.M.S. Argus in Auster III aircraft on 10 September 1943. On 23 February 1944, he enjoyed a flight above Dorset with Brigadier Manners-Smith as passenger.

Pugh completed his training in the late spring of 1944, his Log Book lacking any further entries from 14 May 1944. Remaining with 652 Squadron, he almost certainly spent the next few weeks piloting unarmed Auster aircraft on observation flights over the Channel and northern France on behalf of the Allied Forces. It was on one of these flights that he was killed, the original telegram to the recipient’s wife, adding:
‘Deeply regret to inform you of report received from North West Europe that Captain E V Pugh, Royal Artillery, died on 10th June 1944 from extensive burns, circumstances not yet known.’

His passing is further noted in the Log Book which is officially stamped: ‘Killed on Active Service, Central Depository, Royal Air Force, August 1946’. The husband of Yvonne Jessie Pugh, formerly Marichal, herself a survivor of the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, Pugh is buried in Bayeux British Cemetery, France.

Sold with the recipient’s original Form 414. R.A.F. Pilot’s Flying Log Book, as forwarded to Madame Y. Pugh, 20 August 1946; original telegram to Mrs. Y. Pugh, 7 Broadway, Bromyard; Certificate of Death, dated at the War Office 19 September 1944; Buckingham Palace letter of condolence; newspaper cutting and private research.