Orders, Decorations & Medals - British Groups

Lot 2336    SESSION 14 (2.30PM THURSDAY 28TH NOVEMBER)    Orders, Decorations & Medals - British Groups

Estimate $7,500
Bid at live.noble.com.au

OBE, MC, MID Group of Eight to WIA: The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (Officer OBE) (Military) type 1; Military Cross (GRI); 1914-15 Star; British War Medal 1914-18; Victory Medal 1914-19 with MID; India General Service Medal 1908-35 (GVR INDIAE.IMP), - clasp - North West Frontier 1930-31; Jubilee Medal 1935; Coronation Medal 1937. The first seventh and eighth medals unnamed as issued, F.W.Trott. 8th Battn Devon Regt Loos Sep. 25th 1915. on second medal, 2.Lieut.F.W.Trott. Devon.R. on third medal, Capt.F.W.Trott. on fourth and fifth medals and S/L. F.W.Trott. R.A.F. on sixth medal. The second medal engraved, all other named medals impressed. Swing mounted, dark toned and contact marks, otherwise very fine.

OBE: Supplement to LG 1/1/1919, p 94 to Capt. (A./Major) Francis William Trott, M.C.
Francis William Trott and his brother, Alan Charles Trott, attended St John's College, Cambridge. Francis Trott served as a Private in the University and Private Schools Regiment. In WWI he was commissioned into the Devonshire Regiment as a Second Lieutenant. He served in France from 25 July 1914 and was in the Battle of Loos. He was awarded the Military Cross (Gazetted in 1916) for capturing a field gun.
In The Western Morning News on 5 April 1919 part of an article reads, 'The gunners were, on the orders of Lt. Trott - a gallant officer whose bandaged head and bloodstained face bore evidence of an earlier wound - taken prisoners and sent to the rear .... The back of the town was packed with the enemy. They had expected the attack, and had made every preparation to resist it. So strong was their defence that within a very short time the Devons were only a handful of fifty men with captain Gwynn and Lieut. Trott, and at a quarter to nine the order was given to retire from the town and dig in just outside. Whilst they were falling back more men fell, Capt. Gwynn was wounded with a bomb, and Lieut. Trott took command. In order to be able to put up a better resistance he withdrew again slightly, and the men who were left, firing from their knees, put up a plucky resistance. Then Lieut. Trott was again wounded in the hand, and the charge fell on Company Sergt.-Major Bryant.'
F.W. Trott was attached to the Royal Flying Corps (later the Royal Air Force) as Captain in February 1917 and was awarded an OBE in 1919. He was also Mentioned in Despatches. He served in Kohat and the North West Frontier in India and was promoted to Squadron Leader on 1 January 1926. He was commanding officer of No 28 (A/C) Squadron from 22 November 1931 to 19 March 1932. He was promoted to Wing Commander in 1934 and in 1938 was First Commanding Officer of No.1 Air Armament School in Lincolnshire having been appointed Group Captain on 1 January 1938. During WWII his RAF service included an appointment as Head of Air Mission in Washington and then as London liaison with the US Army from 1940 to 1945. He was awarded the USA Legion of Merit in 1946 and retired as a Group Captain on 16 April 1946.
With copies of some Gazette pages.