Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War ‘Western Front’ M.M. awarded to Company Sergeant J. D. Ottignon, Royal Marine Artillery, who was decorated for his gallant deeds in an anti-aircraft battery

Military Medal, G.V.R. (RMA-7437 C. Sjt: J. D. Ottignon. ‘D’ By: A.A. Bde: R.M.A.) edge bruising, therefore nearly very fine £260-£300

M.M. London Gazette 11 October 1916.

Julian Dillon Ottignon was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire on 7 June 1880 and enlisted in the Royal Marine Artillery in May 1898. Advanced to Sergeant in July 1909 and awarded the L.S. & G.C. Medal in August 1913, he was among those deployed to Ostend in the R.M. Brigade on the outbreak of war.

Subsequently – in a nod to his future employment in an anti-aircraft battery – he was attached to the Royal Flying Corps on airfield defence duties. And his service record does indeed confirm his extended tour of duty in the R.M. A.A. Brigade in France and Flanders in the period April 1915 to May 1917, services which resulted in the award of his M.M.

Ottignon, who was appointed to a commission as a Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery in June 1918, died in Nuneaton, Warwickshire in December 1948.