The Warwick G. Cary Collection - Australian Groups

Lot 4705    SESSION 18 (2.30PM FRIDAY 29TH JULY)    The Warwick G. Cary Collection - Australian Groups

Estimate $300
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $600

GROUP OF FOUR: Pacific Star; Defence Medal 1939-45; War Medal 1939-45; Australia Service Medal 1939-45. 266322 C.V.Widdy. All medals impressed. No ribbons, otherwise nearly extremely fine.

Also entitled to a WWI trio as 598 Pte C.V.Widdy, 1 Div Train.

Charles Victor Widdy, born 25Oct1894 at Hillgrove, NSW; Disch.11Feb1946 as Honorary Wing Commander ex 2 Embarkation Depot.

The following article was published in The Armidale Express on Monday 8 November 1943, page 4.

Airman from Hillgrove Led Americans In Solomons
Squadron Leader Widdy's Adventurous Career

Squadron Leader Charles V. Widdy (R.A.A.F), who was born at Hillgrove, is one man who found a war job in the Solomons that fitted him like a glove, and incidentally resulted in a magnificent job of work being done by a band of fuzzy wuzzies banded together as a labour corps under his command. Squadron Leader Widdy was managing director for Lever Bros at Gavutu, a site later of bloody fighting when the Americans sought to recapture the southern Solomons, and he piloted the first marines to land at Guadalcanal. A veteran of Gallipoli, he was 32 when he first arrived at the Solomons. Widdy's life has been one of adventure, which began with gold mining near his birthplace, the last war putting an end to his search for a bonanza near his front door. After the war he spent two years under Norman Buley with a returned soldiers' exploration expedition in the Northern Territory and later drifted to the Solomons, where he reached the top of the ladder with Lever Bros.

With the arrival of the Japs, he sent his wife and baby son to Sydney and joined the R.A.A.F. He was an inevitable selection to guide an American attack, and was sent to New Zealand with U.S. Army leaders for the landing at Guadalcanal. Later activities won him an American decoration.

Sqn Ldr Widdy (RAAF) along with Lieut Gordon Howe (RANR) was awarded the American Legion of Merit degree of Legionnaire for leading a reconnaissance party into Russell Island (Solomons) on 12 February 1943 and obtaining information for later Allied landings.